Contributions of stimulus encoding and memory search to right hemisphere superiority in face recognition: behavioural...

The relative contributions of stimulus encoding and memory search to right hemisphere (RH) superiority in face recognition were investigated in a memory search task with lateralized probe stimulus presentation. RH superiority in reaction time and latency of a late positive ERP component was independent of stimulus degradations, but increased as a function of memory set size. These results suggest equal efficiency of the hemispheres in stimulus encoding, but RH superiority in memory search. In addition, a long-lasting ERP negativity contralateral to the stimulated hemifield is discussed with reference to models of hemispheric processing in hemifield studies.