Laterality in visual speech perception

Author(s): Massaro, D. W., Cohen, M. M., Sittig, A. C.

Journal/Book: J Exp Psychol Hum Percep Perf. 1998; 24: 750 First St NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242. Amer Psychological Assoc. 1232-1242.

Abstract: The lateralization of visual speech perception was examined in 3 experiments. Participants were presented with a realistic computer-animated face articulating 1 of 4 consonant-vowel syllables without sound. The face appeared at 1 of 5 locations in the visual field. The participants' task was to identify each test syllable. To prevent eye movement during the presentation of the face, participants had to carry out a fixation task simultaneously with the speechreading task. In one study, an eccentricity effect was found along with a small but significant difference in favor of the right visual field (left hemisphere). The same results were found with the face articulating nonlinguistic mouth movements (e.g., kiss). These results suggest that the left-hemisphere advantage is based on the processing of dynamic visual information rather than on the extraction of linguistic significance from facial movements.

Note: Article Massaro DW, Univ Calif Santa Cruz, Dept Psychol Social Sci 2, 1156 High St, Santa Cruz,CA 95064 USA

Keyword(s): HEMISPHERIC-SPECIALIZATION; FACE RECOGNITION; SIGN LANGUAGE; INFORMATION; ASYMMETRIES; MOVEMENTS; HEARING; MOUTH

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