Hemispheric lateralization and aesthetic judgement.
Pairs of slides depicting works of art were presented tachistoscopically to the left or right visual half-fields. Subjects performed an aesthetic judgement task, selecting the better work of art in each pair. Subjects with highly lateralized cerebral organization, as inferred by handedness or sex, performed significantly better in response to slides presented in one visual half-field (VHF) than in response to slides presented in the opposite VHF. Some of these subjects showed a left VHF superiority, while others showed a right RHF superiority. Subjects who were less lateralized showed no significant tendency to perform better in response to slides presented in one VHF or the other. The results are interpreted as an indication that subjects will perform a given task in a lateralized or a non-lateralized manner as a function of the interaction between individual differences in cerebral organization and the cognitive processes used to perform the task.