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Abstract

The purpose of this experiment was to determine if there is a relationship between the development of a perceptual skill and the visual field of presentation for verbal and spatial stimuli. Subjects performed an extended practice Sternberg task in which targets were presented in either the left visual field (LVF) or right visual field (RVF). Both verbal (letters) and spatial (3−3 grid patterns) stimuli were used. The results indicated that visual field was not a significant factor for simple verbal stimuli. However, there was an initial LVF, or right hemisphere (RH), advantage for spatial stimuli that switched to a RVF, or left hemisphere (LH), advantage after a skill develops. These data support an analytic role for the LH, which may be the focus for feature detection expertise. Another finding was that individual differences in cerebral dominance may influence the development of perceptual skill. Together these data shed light on possible biological constraints of human information processing models.

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Perceptual Skill and the Cerebral Hemispheres

Abstract

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References