Visual asymmetry on a color-naming task: a longitudinal study with primary school children

Visual half-field asymmetries on a unilateral, monocularly presented tachistoscopic color-naming task for a 5- and a 7-year-old cohort were were remeasured after a 2-year interval and after a 1-year interval for a 10-year-old cohort. The curvilinear developmental trend observed on the first occasion of testing was fitted to a second-order polynomial equation, and this was used to predict mean laterality indices for each cohort on retesting. Null hypotheses were advanced that the mean values observed on retesting would not depart significantly from predicted means. These null hypotheses were upheld and an explanation of the curvilinear developmental trend in terms of changes in information-processing strategies is advanced.