Hemispheric effects of canonical views of category members with known typicality levels

Is there a preferred hemispheric canonical view of a concept? We investigat ed this question in a natural superordinate category membership decision ta sk using a hemifield paradigm. participants had to decide whether or not an image of an object lateralized in the left (LVF) or right (RVF) visual hal f-field is a member of a predesignated superordinate category. The objects represented high, medium, or low typicality levels, and each object had six different perspective views (front, front-right, front-left, side, back-le ft, and back-right). The latency responses revealed a significant interacti on of Hemi Field x View x Typicality (there was no hemifield difference in accuracy). The findings confirm the presence of asymmetry in stored concept s in long-term memory and suggest, in addition, a hemispheric canonical vie w of these concepts, a view strongly related to typicality level. (C) 2001 Academic Press.