Expertise modulates hemispheric asymmetry in holistic processing: evidence from Chinese character processing

Abstract

Holistic processing (HP) has been proposed to be a character-istic of right hemisphere (RH) processing. Here we test this claim using the divided visual field paradigm with Chinese character stimuli. HP is assessed through the composite para-digm, which is commonly used in perceptual expertise re-search. We found that in novice Chinese readers, a standard HP pattern emerged only in the left visual field/RH but not in the right visual field/left hemisphere, consistent with the ana-lytic/holistic hemispheric dichotomy in the literature. However, in expert Chinese readers, neither visual field showed the HP pattern, consistent with the finding that re-duced HP is an expertise maker for Chinese character recog-nition. Thus, the RH does not always employ holistic process-ing; it depends on the perceivers’ experience with the stimuli. This is the first study demonstrating that expertise with a vis-ual object type can modulate hemispheric difference in HP.