Presentation of words to separate hemispheres prevents interword illusory conjunctions

Int J Neurosci. 1999 Mar;97(1-2):1-16. doi: 10.3109/00207459908994299.

Abstract

We tested the hypothesis that division of inputs between the hemispheres could prevent interword letter migrations in the form of illusory conjunctions. The task was to decide whether a centrally-presented consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) target word matched one of four CVC words presented to a single hemisphere or divided between the hemispheres in a subsequent test display. During half of the target-absent trials, known as conjunction trials, letters from two separate words (e.g., "tag" and "cop") in the test display could be mistaken for a target word (e.g., "top"). For the other half of the target-absent trails, the test display did not match any target consonants (Experiment 1, N = 16) or it matched one target consonant (Experiment 2, N = 29), the latter constituting true "feature" trials. Bi- as compared to unihemispheric presentation significantly reduced the number of conjunction, but not feature, errors. Illusory conjunctions did not occur when the words were presented to separate hemispheres.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Female
  • Functional Laterality / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Language
  • Male
  • Psychomotor Performance
  • Speech Perception / physiology*