Studies requiring identification of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) nonword
s have suggested that attention is distributed more slowly or sequentially
across the letters when they are presented to the right hemisphere than to
the left hemisphere. Two experiments investigated whether hemispheric diffe
rences in processing strategy would be reduced with reductions of hemispher
ic differences in accuracy. The magnitude of visual field differences in ac
curacy was controlled by manipulating exposure duration, and the effect was
observed on visual field differences in processing strategy. For both CVC
identification (Experiment 1) and identification of nonletter symbols (Expe
riment 2), hemispheric strategy differences were independent of differences
in accuracy. Both quantitative and qualitative hemispheric differences in
processing visual displays appear to depend on the nature of the stimuli an
d the nature of the processes they invoke.