[Hemisphere asymmetry in repetitive priming and associative priming]

This study investigated hemispheric asymmetries in repetition priming (Experiment 1) and associative priming (Experiment 2) in visual word recognition. Participants performed speeded lexical decisions for foveally presented target words that could be preceded by prime words presented to the left (LVF) or right (RVF) visual field. Experiment 1 demonstrated larger repetition priming in reaction times when prime words were presented to the RVF (left hemisphere). In contrast, no repetition priming was observed for pseudowords. Hemispheric asymmetries in word repetition priming may therefore reflect the superiority of the left hemisphere in activating lexical representations. Experiment 2 did not find any hemispheric asymmetries in associative priming. The results suggest that repetition priming and associative priming act on different levels in word recognition, for which different hemispheric asymmetries exist.