Does Single Kanji Process Dominantly in the Right Hemisphere? Some Implication from Stroop-Test Results

Abstract

Naming times to single character Kanji, which consisted of small alphabetic letters, Kanji (Stroop stimuli), and solid lines, presented in the left or the right visual field were measured. When subjects tried to respond to Alphabet Stroop stimuli, they showed a greater interference effect in the case of right visual field presentation. Kanji Stroop stimuli yielded no visual field difference in the size of interference effect. These findings suggest that Kanji has a different property from phonetic symbols and a specialization of the right hemisphere for single character Kanji processing.