Quantitative and qualitative hemispheric asymmetry for processing Japanesekana

Native Japanese speakers identified three-letter kana stimuli presented to the left visual field and night hemisphere (LVF/RH), to the right visual fi eld and left hemisphere (RVF/LH), or to both visual fields and hemispheres simultaneously (BILATERAL trials). There were fewer errors on RVF/LH and BI LATERAL trials than on LVF/RH trials. Qualitative analysis of error pattern s indicated that there were many fewer errors of first-letter identificatio n than of last-letter identification, suggesting top-to-bottom scanning of the kana characters. In contrast to similar studies presenting nonword lett er trigrams to native English speakers, qualitative error patterns were ide ntical for the three visual field conditions. Taken together with the resul ts of earlier studies, the results of the present experiment indicate that the ubiquitous RVF/LH advantage reflects a left-hemisphere superiority for phonetic processing that generalizes across specific languages. At the same time, qualitative aspects of hemispheric asymmetry differ from one languag e to the next and may depend on such things as the way in which individual characters map onto the pronunciation of words and nonwords. (C) 1999 Acade mic Press.