THE INFLUENCE OF PHONOLOGICAL AND ORTHOGRAPHIC INFORMATION ON AUDITORY LEXICAL ACCESS IN BRAIN-DAMAGED PATIENTS - A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION

The effects of phonology and orthography on auditory lexical access we re examined in fluent and non-fluent aphasics and right brain-damaged patients using an auditory lexical decision task. An effect of orthogr aphy independent of brain damage was suggested by the findings that, o verall, responses were faster to words preceded by primes that were bo th phonologically and orthographically related to the target than to t hose that were unrelated, whereas phonologically related primes alone did not facilitate reaction times. Responses were also slower relative to the unrelated condition to targets that were orthographically but not phonologically related to their primes. These results were interpr eted as counter-evidence to the claim that orthographic effects are la teralized to the left hemisphere (Zecker et al. 1986). The results con cerning the effect of phonology were equivocal.