| |
Abstract:
Proper names have been found to differ from common nouns not
only in patterns of breakdown but also in how difficult they are to
recall normally and how vulnerable they are to the effects of
aging. Moreover, proper names were found to be less lateralized
than other categories of words in a task requiring written reports
(Saffran et. al., 1980). METHOD: Familiar upper-case proper names,
common English words and nonwords were used as stimuli in a
lateralized lexical decision task with 16 normal participants. We
manipulated the laterality of the target stimulus (left visual
hemifield = LVF, right visual hemifield = RVF) and lexicality of
the target (nouns, names and nonwords). Nouns and names were
matched for frequency/familiarity. RESULTS: Main effects were
obtained for lexicality and laterality. Proper names, common nouns
and nonwords were recognized faster and more accurately in that
order. A RVF advantage was found for all three lexical types.
Interestingly, however, common nouns were highly lateralized to the
LH, proper names were less lateralized, and nonwords showed no
laterality effect. There was no difference between common nouns and
proper names in the RVF/LH, but there was a significant advantage
for proper names over common nouns in the LVF/RH. CONCLUSION:
Proper names maintain a special status in the RH and this
corroborates theories of category-specific lexical
processing.
|
