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Abstract:
Prior studies indicate that interhemispheric interaction
(IHI) facilitates the performance of attentionally demanding tasks
(e.g., Banich and Belger, 1990), but the mechanism by which this
effect occurs remains unclear. In the present study, we
investigated whether IHI can augment performance under
attentionally demanding conditions by allowing the hemispheres to
process information in parallel. To investigate this issue, we
employed an Attentional Blink paradigm. Attentional Blink refers to
a failure to detect a second target item after detecting an initial
target item, an effect that is proposed to result from a processing
bottleneck (Chun and Potter, 1995). We predicted that dividing the
two target items across the visual fields would direct each item to
an independent processor, thereby reducing the bottleneck
responsible for the AB effect. Consistent with iour hypothesis, we
found that directing the target items to opposite visual fields
significantly reduced the AB effect, suggesting that the cerebral
hemispheres are capable of processing information in parallel. This
effect, however, was driven by conditions in which the first target
item was directed to the RVF(LH). When the first target item was
directed to the LVF(RH), performance was unaffected by which visual
field received the second target item. These results may indicate
an asymmetry in the ability of the two hemispheres to process
information independently from one another.
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