Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Previous studies link the right hemisphere (RH) to visuo-spatial/configural processing and the left hemisphere (LH) to language, although evidence shows variability across tasks, measures, and individuals, with RH also contributing to verbal processing (Whitehouse & Bishop, 2012). The current study tested for hemispheric specialization using a visual half-field paradigm (face-matching, symmetry-judgment, and word-categorization tasks), analyzing accuracy, sensitivity (d_), RT, and decision bias (c). Mixed-effects modeling revealed a clear LVF/RH advantage for face-matching and symmetry-judgment, with higher sensitivity, faster RTs, greater accuracy, and a liberal bias for faces but a slightly conservative bias for symmetry. Word-categorization showed a subtle RVF/LH advantage in RT, both at task level and for abstract words, but no reliable visual field differences in accuracy. These findings demonstrate joint and complementary hemispheric asymmetries across tasks and measures for RH and LH functions, respectively, challenging the statistical independence view (Bryden, 1982; Harms & Elias, 2014).