Morphological complexity and cerebral lateralization.
Fifteen agentive nouns, all with meanings derivable from the meaning of the stem verb, were presented tachistoscopically to right-handed subjects. Non-agentive nouns were also presented, and subjects were asked to produce the plural form in addition to the simple stimulus form. The results show a significant right visual field advantage for the agentive and plural nouns, but no significant advantage in either field for the simple nouns. These findings suggest that the left hemisphere is superior in processing nouns which are morphologically complex.
D000328:Adult; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics