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Hemispheric asymmetries in semantic processing: evidence from false memories for ambiguous words
Miriam Faust1, Elisheva Ben-Artzi, Itay Harel
1Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, 52900 Ramat-Gan, Israel. faustm@mail.biu.ac.il
Brain and Language
|January 8, 2008
Summary
The left hemisphere (LH) and right hemisphere (RH) process word meanings differently, impacting memory for ambiguous words. The RH activates a broader range of meanings, supporting the coarse semantic coding theory.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psycholinguistics
- Neuroscience of Language
Background:
- The left hemisphere (LH) is associated with processing strongly related word meanings.
- The right hemisphere (RH) may uniquely process lexical ambiguity by activating a wide range of meanings, including subordinate ones.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if hemispheric differences in semantic processing affect memory representations of ambiguous words.
- To examine how the LH and RH handle dominant versus subordinate meanings of ambiguous words in memory.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the word-lists false memory paradigm.
- Presented lists of words related to either dominant or subordinate meanings of ambiguous words.
- Assessed false alarm rates and sensitivity (d') for unpresented ambiguous words in each hemisphere.
Main Results:
- The LH produced more false alarms than the RH for dominant meaning lists, while the RH produced more for subordinate meaning lists.
- LH sensitivity was higher for subordinate meanings, whereas RH sensitivity showed no difference between dominant and subordinate meanings.
- Hemispheric differences in ambiguity resolution extend to verbal memory.
Conclusions:
- Findings support the RH coarse semantic coding theory, suggesting the RH activates a broader semantic network than the LH.
- The RH maintains a less differentiated range of meanings, encompassing both dominant and subordinate meanings of ambiguous words.
- Hemispheric specialization in language processing influences both comprehension and memory.
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