title: A right visual field advantage for tool-recognition in the visual half-field paradigm.
abstract: Neuropsychological and brain imaging studies have shown that the identification and use of tools mainly involve areas of the left hemisphere. We investigate whether this dominance can be observed in a behavioral visual half-field (VHF) task as well. To make sure that the VHF-effect was due to laterality and not due to attentional bias, we made use of two tasks: tool recognition and object recognition. On the basis of the existing literature, we predicted a right visual field (RVF) advantage for tool recognition, but not for object recognition. Twenty right-handed participants made judgments about whether one of two bilaterally presented stimuli was an object/non-object or a tool/non-tool. No VHF/hemisphere advantage was found for object recognition, whereas a significant RVF/left hemisphere advantage was observed for tool recognition. These findings show that VHF-tasks can be used as a valid laterality measure of tool recognition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. ark.verma@ugent.be
authors.forename: Ark
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brysbaert
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D054022:Cerebrum / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D053001:Tool Use Behavior; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*