Abstract
Abstract: Lexical decision tasks (LDTs) are often employed to implicitly measure each hemisphere's capacity to process semantic information. Different hemispheric patterns may result from tasks with explicit semantic demands (semantic decision tasks, SDTs). We administered healthy subjects two different lateralized tasks, one LDT and one SDT (category matching task). The target word pairs were identical in both tasks and either closely or distantly semantically related. Overall, the fastest RTs were evidenced in the RVF/LH. However, individual analyses revealed a single main effect of hemifield in the LDT (RVF/LH faster than LVF/RH) and a single main effect of semantic distance (shorter latencies with closely related words) in the SDT. These findings indicate that hemispheric asymmetries depend on task demands.
Zusammenfassung: Zur Untersuchung gesichtsfeldabhängiger Sprachverarbeitungsprozesse werden häufig lexikalische Entscheidungsaufgaben (LDT) verwendet. Solche Aufgaben geben nur indirekt Aufschluss über semantische Verarbeitungsprozesse. Bei semantischen Entscheidungsaufgaben (SDT), die explizit eine semantische Verarbeitung erfordern, könnten sich unterschiedliche Asymmetrien finden. In dieser Untersuchung hatten Probanden bei lateralisiert dargebotenen Wortpaaren zu entscheiden, ob sie aus zwei sinnvollen Wörtern bestanden (LDT) oder ob die beiden Wörter derselben semantischen Kategorie zuzuordnen waren (SDT). Die Wortpaare der beiden Aufgaben waren von grosser oder geringer Ähnlichkeit. Gesamthaft betrachtet ergaben sich kürzere Reaktionszeiten bei Reizdarbietung im rechten Gesichtsfeld/linke Hemisphäre. In der LDT fand sich nur ein Haupteffekt für das Gesichtsfeld, in der SDT nur ein Haupteffekt für semantische Ähnlichkeit (kürzere Reaktionszeiten für große Ähnlichkeit). Das Ausmaß der Hemisphärenasymmetrien wird damit entscheidend von der Aufgabenstellung beeinflusst.
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