Embedded words in visual word recognition: does the left hemisphere see the rain in brain?

Abstract

To examine whether interhemispheric transfer during foveal word recognition entails a discontinuity between the information presented to the left and right of fixation, we presented target words in such a way that participants fixated immediately left or right of an embedded word (as in gr*apple, bull*et) or in the middle of an embedded word (grapp*le, bu*llet). Categorization responses to target words were faster and more accurate in a congruent condition (in which the embedded word was associated with the same response; e.g., Does bullet refer to an item of clothing?) than in an incongruent condition (e.g., Does bullet refer to a type of animal?). However, the magnitude of this effect did not vary as a function of position of fixation, relative to the embedded word, as might be expected if information from the 2 visual fields was initially split over the cerebral hemispheres and integrated only late in the word identification process. Equivalent results were observed in Experiment 1 (long stimulus duration) and Experiment 2 (in which stimulus duration was 200 ms; i.e., less than the time required to initiate a refixation).