Hemispheric Asymmetries in Reading Korean: Task Matters

Abstract

Native Korean readers were studied in a visual half-field paradigm. Subjects were to make speeded judgments on Hangul (syllabic) and Hanzza (logographic) scripts based on phonetic or visual properties of the stimuli. A task by visual field interaction was obtained indicating that, for both scripts, responses on the phonetic task were faster in the right visual field, whereas no visual field differences were found on the visual task. Script type did not interact with visual field. The results support a task-based account of hemispheric differences in verbal processing. © 1997 Academic PressVisual laterality studies with brain-intact right-handers have consistently yielded a right visual field superiority in response accuracy and/or latency. This asymmetry has in turn been thought to reflect left cerebral hemisphere specialization for verbal processing, consistent with the long noted clinical association between aphasia and left-sided brain injury.While the general association between language and the left hemisphere is clearly beyond dispute, there is little agreement over the best way to characterize the precise nature of this association. The canonical finding of a right field superiority in verbal laterality studies is based on studies of a fairly narrow range of subjects (right-handed, monolingual), languages (left to right, alphabetic), stimuli (single words), and tasks (word identification or recognition).In order to better understand both the scope and the nature of laterality effects, it would be instructive to design research that systematically varies some or all potential parameters, including subject, stimulus, and task characteristics (see Hellige, 1993). With respect to subject variables, for example,