Hi Peter et al.,
peter wrote
>>>This hypothesis originates with Dr. Bill Calvin who suggests that the
>>>reason a mother would want to hold a baby on the left side is because
>>>thatis where the heart is most audible.
>Tim wrote:
>> I think it actually owes to Alan Previc.
peter asked
>Do you have a referrence on this? Calvin explicitly claims this hypothesis
>as his own, both in his book and in person. I talked with him at the
>Society for Neuroscience conference in New Orleans a year ago.
Previc FH.(1991) A general theory concerning the prenatal origins of cerebral lateralisation in humans. Psychological Review.98:299-334.
I don't believe it. There seems to be a consensus, however, that the origins of which side got chosen to be the left/language/generative grammar side are probably incidental to _some_ artifact of this nature. Doesn't really matter too much, I suspect. The big thing is that the world is constructed as generative objects on the left and as synthetic spatial maps on the right.
best,
t