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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Central and Divided Visual Field Presentation of Emotional Images to Measure Hemispheric Differences in Motivated Attention
Published on: November 16, 2017
Lateralised repetition priming for featurally and configurally manipulated familiar faces: evidence for
Victoria J Bourne1, Matei Vladeanu, Graham J Hole
1School of Psychology, University of Dundee, Dundee, Scotland, UK. v.bourne@dundee.ac.uk
Abstract:
Although early research suggested that the right hemisphere was dominant for processing faces, more recent studies have provided evidence for both hemispheres being involved, at least to some extent. In this experiment we examined hemispheric specialisations by using a lateralised repetition-priming paradigm with selectively degraded faces. Configurally degraded prime faces produced negative priming when presented to the left visual field (right hemisphere) and positive priming (facilitation) when presented to the right visual field (left hemisphere). Featurally degraded prime faces produced the opposite pattern of effects: positive priming when presented to the left visual field (right hemisphere) and negative priming when presented to the right visual field (left hemisphere). These results support the proposal that each hemisphere is differentially specialised for processing distinct forms of facial information: the right hemisphere for configural information and the left hemisphere for featural information.
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