Differential Recognition of Tachistoscopically Presented English and Hebrew Words in Right and Left Visual Fields

Abstract

In this study, the role of lateral cerebral dominance in the consistent finding of lower tachistoscopic thresholds in the right than in the left visual field for alphabetic material was tested for readers of Hebrew and English. Twenty Israeli Ss were presented with Hebrew and English three-letter words, printed vertically, through a monocular tachistoscope, displaced to left or right of fixation by 2°21′. Ten American Ss were also tested for three-letter English words, under similar conditions. Significantly lower thresholds in the right field were found for both groups and for both languages, despite the fact that Hebrew, unlike English, is read from right to left. These findings tend to support the hypothesis that alphabetic stimuli arriving in the major cerebral hemisphere are more readily recognized than similar stimuli arriving in the hemisphere contralateral to the language areas.

Dissociating Prelexical and Postlexical Processing of Affective Information in the Two Hemispheres: Effects of the Stimulus Presentation Format

“…However, this difference was considerably weaker than in Experiment 1, where stimuli were presented horizontally (cf. Barton et al, 1965;Howell & Bryden, 1987;Lavidor et al, 2001;Mishkin & Forgays, 1952).…”

“…On the other hand, some studies wherein Hebrew or English words were presented in a vertical format still found a right visual field advantage (e.g., Barton, Goodglass, & Shai, 1965;Boles, 1985;Faust, Kravetz, & Babkoff, 1993), although the effect tended to be weaker than in the horizontal case and was sometimes not significant (Howell & Bryden, 1987). Reviewing the topic, Bradshaw, Nettleton, and Taylor (1981) concluded that word orientation does not seem to have much impact on visual field differences when single-syllable words are used (cf.…”

“…Stimulus presentations were centered to the vertical midline. The items were presented for 175 ms with a minimum visual angle of 2.44°measured between the center of the fixation cross and the inner edge of the letter H (one of the widest letters), thus exceeding the angles used in other studies that had successfully demonstrated visual half field differences in lexical decision with vertical item orientations (Barton et al, 1965;Boles, 1985). Data analysis was performed as in Experiment 1.…”

Neuropsychological approaches to bilingualism: A critical review.

“…In a subsequent study with HebrewEnglish bilinguals, however, a RVF superiority was noted for words in both languages (Orbach, 1967). Barton, Goodglass and Shai (1965) examined the cerebral laterality effect in English-Hebrew bilinguals by presenting them with vertically printed English and Hebrew words. Both languages produced a RVF superiority, which was comparable to that obtained for English in monolingual group.…”

“…Both languages produced a RVF superiority, which was comparable to that obtained for English in monolingual group. A control group of Hebrew-English bilinguals was not, however, tested (Barton et al, 1965). Finally, a study by Gaziel, examined the strength of the visual field preference in a group of Hebrew-English and EnglishHebrew bilinguals with different levels of proficiency in the second language.…”