title: The representation of discourse in the two hemispheres: an individual differences investigation.
abstract: Two experiments were conducted to investigate discourse representation in the two cerebral hemispheres as a function of reading skill. We used a lateralized visual-field procedure to compare left hemisphere (LH) and right hemisphere (RH) sensitivity to different discourse relations in readers with varying skill levels. In Experiment 1, we investigated two levels of discourse representation in memory: (a) the propositional representation and (b) the discourse model. We found that all readers were sensitive to propositional relations in the LH. In contrast, sensitivity to propositional relations in the RH increased as a function of reading skill. In addition, reading skill was positively related to topic relations in the LH, whereas it was negatively in the RH. In Experiment 2, we investigated propositional relations of different distances and again found that all readers were sensitive to propositional relations in the LH, whereas sensitivity to propositional relations in the RH was negatively related to reading skill. In general, reading skill appears to be associated with left-lateralized discourse representations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Center for Neuroscience, University of California, Davis, and VA Northern California Health Care System, CA, USA. csprat@cmu.edu
authors.forename: Chantel S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Prat
authors.forename: Debra L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Long
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Baynes
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology