title: Perception of words and non-words in the upper and lower visual fields.
abstract: The findings of previous investigations into word perception in the upper and the lower visual field (VF) are variable and may have incurred non-perceptual biases caused by the asymmetric distribution of information within a word, an advantage for saccadic eye-movements to targets in the upper VF and the possibility that stimuli were not projected to the correct retinal locations. The present study used the Reicher-Wheeler task and an eye-tracker to show that, using stringent methodology, a right over left VF advantage is observed for word recognition, but that no differences were found between the upper and the lower VF for either word or non-word recognition. The results are discussed in terms of the neuroanatomy and perceptual abilities of the upper and the lower VF and implications for other studies of letter-string perception in the upper and the lower VF are presented.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. lpxid@psychology.nottingham.ac.uk
authors.forename: Iain T
authors.initials: IT
authors.lastname: Darker
authors.forename: Timothy R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Jordan
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011932:Reading; D014794:Visual Fields