title: Haptic recognition of familiar objects: examining lateralization of specificity effects.
abstract: Previous research has found evidence in favor of two subsystems underlying object recognition: an abstract-category subsystem that mainly works in the left hemisphere (LH) and a specific-exemplar subsystem that mainly works in the right hemisphere (RH). This asymmetry has been observed in both the visual and auditory domains by means of long-term repetition priming experiments. This study explored whether this asymmetrical pattern extends to the haptic domain through an experiment in which 30 right-handed participants (24 women) ages 18 to 38 years could identify familiar objects with a single hand. The procedure included two blocks of trials, the study (presentation of primes) and the test phase (presentation of targets), separated by a short distractor task. Of interest was if repetition of the same exemplar object (e.g., the same cigarette lighter) produced more priming than repetition of a different exemplar of the same object category (e.g., a different cigarette lighter), and, crucially, if this hypothetical same-exemplar advantage (specificity) was larger when objects were identified with the left hand (RH). An ANOVA was performed on RTs with priming type (same-exemplar primed, different-exemplar primed and unprimed) and hand (left, right) as within-participants factors. Results showed a main effect of priming type due to a same-exemplar advantage (shorter RTs) both for the left and the right hand, but a non-significant interaction between specificity effects and hands.
authors.affiliation: 1 Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain.
authors.forename: Julio
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: González-Alvarez
authors.forename: María-Ángeles
authors.initials: MÁ
authors.lastname: Palomar-García
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D054022:Cerebrum / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology* / Q000528:radiation effects*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D060865:Repetition Priming / Q000502:physiology; D013236:Stereognosis / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult