Perceptual reference frames and visual field asymmetry for verbal processing

Two experiments investigated the role of perceptual reference frames in producing visual field asymmetries for the recognition of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) nonsense syllables. In an upright stimulus display condition, both quantitative and qualitative visual field asymmetries replicated those obtained in earlier studies of CVC identification. When the stimulus displays were rotated 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise, there were no effects of presenting the CVC in relative LVF vs relative RVF stimulus locations. The contrast between results in the upright and rotated stimulus display conditions indicates that the LVF/RVF differences in the upright displays are attributable to the position of the CVC relative to the fovea, rather than relative to the perceptual reference frame. This finding is consistent with the interpretation that LVF/RVF differences in the upright condition are attributable to hemispheric differences in the processing of linguistic/phonetic information.