THE EFFECT OF COMPLEXITY UPON HEMISPHERIC-SPECIALIZATION FOR READING CHINESE CHARACTERS

A number of reports in the literature have suggested that there is a r ight hemisphere advantage for the processing of single Chinese or Japa nese characters. There are, nonetheless, many studies which have produ ced contradictory findings, suggesting that the factor or factors unde rlying the lateral asymmetry have not been clearly identified. The pre sent study investigated the proposal that visual complexity of single Chinese characters, as measured by stroke number, was related to a rig ht hemisphere advantage for processing this material. However, increas ing the level df complexity of the characters was found to be related to the development of a left hemisphere advantage, thus clearly discon firming the proposal. It is argued that the results are more satisfact orily interpreted in terms of the relationship between hemisphere spec ialization and the spatial frequency of the stimuli. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.