Letter identification processes in reading: Distractor interference reveals an automatically engaged, domain-specific mechanism
View/ Open
26972 10.1.1.514.9054.pdf (672.1Kb)
Access Status
Full text of the requested work is not available in DASH at this time ("restricted access"). For more information on restricted deposits, see our FAQ.Author
Finkbeiner, Matthew
Almeida, Jorge
Caramazza, Alfonso
Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1080/02643290600665778Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Finkbeiner, Matthew, Jorge Almeida, and Alfonso Caramazza. 2006. “Letter Identification Processes in Reading: Distractor Interference Reveals an Automatically Engaged, Domain-Specific Mechanism.” Cognitive Neuropsychology 23 (8): 1083–1103. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643290600665778.Abstract
Recent neuroimaging studies have revealed that letters activate both the left and the right fusiform areas, but that only the left fusiform responds to letters more than to control stimuli (Cohen et al., 2003). Though these findings suggest that the left fusiform is specialized in its function of identifying letters, it does not rule out the possibility that the right fusiform contributes critically to letter identification processes. We used a behavioural word identification task in which we compared bilateral and unilateral displays to determine the cost of engaging the right hemisphere with a distractor stimulus. We found that while engaging the left hemisphere led to a robust interference effect, engaging the right hemisphere had no effect at all. We were able to rule out an attentional bias to the right visual field as a possible explanation of the asymmetrical interference effect. We conclude that while the right hemisphere may be able to assume letter identification processing responsibilities in some patients with brain damage, the right hemisphere does not contribute critically to abstract letter identification processes in healthy right-handed individuals.Citable link to this page
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:41384824
Collections
- FAS Scholarly Articles [18276]
Contact administrator regarding this item (to report mistakes or request changes)