An investigation of hemisphere differences for moderately imageable words across high and low image contexts

The RVF/LH advantage typically found for high image nouns may be reduced or eliminated when they are mixed with other types of words, such as low image nouns (Chiarello, Liu, & Shears, 2001). Global stimulus context thus appears to affect the distribution of processing across the hemispheres (Chiarello et al., 2001). This idea was further investigated in the present study by presenting moderately imageable words (e.g., HOBBY) intermixed with either low or high image nouns. It was predicted that these medium image words would show a RVF advantage when mixed with high image nouns. However, this RVF advantage was expected to disappear when they were mixed with low image nouns, because the medium image words would be relatively more imageable in that context. This hypothesis was not supported, as similar RVF advantages were found for each imageability condition. It is suggested that more heterogenous stimulus distributions may be necessary for context-dependent alterations of cerebral asymmetries to occur.