Subjective Lateralization within Auditory Imagery: Valence and Verbality

Two experiments examined whether auditory imagery was localized to the left or right ear. Building on research of Prete and colleagues, in Experiment 1, participants imaged a person spoke into their ear or they spoke into an imaged person's ear. Valence of the message was positive (e.g., “you won!”) or negative (e.g., “you lost!”), and sex of the imaged person and whether the participant or imaged person was imaged to have moved was varied. Positively-valenced messages were more likely to be imaged at the right ear; negatively-valenced messages were more likely to be imaged at the left ear. In Experiment 2, participants imaged a positively-valenced (e.g., a kitten purring) or a negatively-valenced (e.g., fingernails scratching a chalkboard) nonverbal sound. Both positively-valenced nonverbal sounds and negatively-valenced nonverbal sounds were imaged at the right ear. Auditory imagery vividness and clarity, handedness, and preferred telephone ear did not generally correlate with ear preferences. Implications for lateralization of language, emotion, and auditory frequency; the inner voice/inner ear distinction; and methods of analysis are discussed.