Face and word Laterality: Exploring the Connections
Open Access
Author:
Scarbrough, Jessica Ann
Area of Honors:
Psychology
Degree:
Bachelor of Arts
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Reginald Adams Jr., Thesis Supervisor Jeff M Love, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Laterality face and word processing
Abstract:
For decades, researchers have demonstrated that the left hemisphere of the brain is lateralized for verbal stimuli processing such as words, whereas the right hemisphere is lateralized for non-verbal stimuli processing such as faces. Researchers used to think that the right hemisphere was relatively inactive and that the left hemisphere did most of the work; however, decades of research and the development of new research techniques have allowed researchers to recognize that both the left and the right hemispheres are very active. Our goal was to expand on the laterality literature, and delve into possible underlying connections for the lateralization effects. In the current study, we not only failed to replicate prior findings, but found an opposite effect.
