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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology of Language
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1475475

Contributions of Hemispheric Dynamics in Visual Word Recognition: Uncovering Familiarity Effects through Lateralized Priming

Provisionally accepted
Sangyub Kim Sangyub Kim 1Kichun Nam Kichun Nam 2*
  • 1 Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Gwangju, Republic of Korea
  • 2 Korea University, Sejong, Republic of Korea

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The present investigation aimed to explore interhemispheric interactions in the visual word processing, particularly focusing on proficiency development. Employing a primed-lateralized lexical decision task with a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 100 ms, we assessed behavioral responses based on parafoveal visual fields (left visual field/right visual field) of prime and target stimuli. Leveraging the familiarity effect as a gauge of visual word processing proficiency, our hypothesis posited that the primary hemisphere predominantly regulates interhemispheric interactions due to the asymmetrical specialization observed in visual word processing across hemispheres.Our findings revealed a significant interhemispheric familiarity effect in response times when the left visual field (LVF)/right hemisphere (RH) served as the prime and the right visual field (RVF)/left hemisphere (LH) as the target. Furthermore, we identified a significant intrahemispheric familiarity effect in response times within the LVF/RH condition, highlighting the significance of RH visual-perceptual processing in the developmental trajectory of proficiency in visual word recognition concerning interand intrahemispheric interactions. These outcomes furnish compelling evidence of asymmetric specialization between hemispheres and offer valuable insights into interhemispheric dynamics during the evolution of visual word recognition proficiency.

    Keywords: visual word recognition, stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), hemispheric specialization, Lexical decision task (LDT), Hemispheric Dynamics

    Received: 03 Aug 2024; Accepted: 25 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kim and Nam. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Kichun Nam, Korea University, Sejong, 02841, Republic of Korea

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