Development and Validation of a Persian Version of Dichotic Emotional Word Test

Abstract

<strong><em>Introduction</em></strong><strong><em>:</em></strong> <br/>Emotional words in comparison with neutral words have different hemispheric specialization. It is assumed that the right hemisphere has a role in processing every kind of emotional word. The objective of the present study was the development of a Persian version of the dichotic emotional word test and evaluate its validation among adult Persian speakers. <br/><strong><em> </em></strong> <br/><strong><em>Materials and Methods</em></strong><strong><em>: </em></strong> <br/>The present study was done on 60 adults, with the age ranging from 18-30 years for both genders, who had no history of neurological disorders with normal hearing. The developed test included eight main lists; each had several dichotic emotional/ neutral pairs of words. Participants were asked to recall as many words in each list as they could after they listened to them. A content validity index was used to analyze the validity of the test. <br/><strong><em> </em></strong> <br/><strong><em>Results:</em></strong> <br/>The mean content validity index score was 0.94. The findings showed that in the left ear, emotional words were remembered more than neutral ones (P=0.007). While in the right ear, neutral words were remembered more (P=0.009). There were no significant differences in male and female scores. <br/><strong><em> </em></strong> <br/><strong><em>Conclusion:</em></strong><em> </em> <br/>Dichotic emotional word test has a high content validity. The ability to remember emotional words better in the left ear supports the dominant role of the right hemisphere in emotional word perception.