Effects of spelling-to-sound regularity on word identification following brief presentation in the right or left visual field

Abstract

In this experiment subjects were briefly presented with a vertically written word to either the left or right visual field. On half the critical trials the target word was irregular in its spelling-to-sound correspondence (e.g. PINT) and in the other half it was regular (e.g. LIME). With right visual field presentation substantially more regular than irregular words were reported correctly but with left visual field presentation no such effect was found. The data also showed the presence of far more “regularization” errors following right visual field presentation. The data are seen as consistent with the view that the right hemisphere is not capable of generating phonology.