Right away: A late, right-lateralized category effect complements an early, left-lateralized category effect in visual search

Constable, Merryn and Becker, Stefanie I. (2017) Right away: A late, right-lateralized category effect complements an early, left-lateralized category effect in visual search. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 24 (5). pp. 1611-1619. ISSN 1069-9384

[img]
Preview
Text
constable-becker-2017.pdf - Accepted Version

Download (500kB) | Preview
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-017-1246-3

Abstract

According to the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, learned semantic categories can influence early perceptual processes. A central finding in support of this view is the lateralized category effect—namely, the finding that categorically different colors (e.g., blue and green hues) can be discriminated faster than colors within the same color category (e.g., different hues of green), especially when they are presented in the right visual field. Because the right visual field projects to the left hemisphere, this finding has been popularly couched in terms of the left-lateralization of language. However, other studies have reported bilateral category effects, which has led some researchers to question the linguistic origins of the effect. Here we examined the time course of lateralized and bilateral category effects in the classical visual search paradigm by means of eyetracking and RT distribution analyses. Our results show a bilateral category effect in the manual responses, which is combined of an early, left-lateralized category effect and a later, right-lateralized category effect. The newly discovered late, right-lateralized category effect occurred only when observers had difficulty locating the target, indicating a specialization of the right hemisphere to find categorically different targets after an initial error. The finding that early and late stages of visual search show different lateralized category effects can explain a wide range of previously discrepant findings.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, Whorfian effect, Visual search, category effect, categorical perception, eye movement
Subjects: C800 Psychology
Department: Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Psychology
Depositing User: Rachel Branson
Date Deposited: 06 Mar 2020 10:26
Last Modified: 31 Jul 2021 19:31
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/42386

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics