Sex and visual field effects on accuracy and decision making when subjects classify male and female faces.

Male and female subjects classified tachistoscopically presented slide photographs of faces as male or female. In Experiments I and II presentation was at random to the right or left visual hemifield. Two different signal detection procedures demonstrated that accuracy for both visual fields is equivalent in females and that males show a marked right-field advantage. A third experiment showed that this field advantage is preserved for males when presentation right or left is by blocks of trials suggesting that the left hemisphere is specialized for classification tasks. Results also showed that optimization in signal detection tasks may be lateralized for both males and females though males optimize more poorly than females in the left visual field. The data are taken to demonstrate equipotentiality of hemispheric functioning in females and stronger hemispheric lateralization in males.