The role of orthographic neighbourhood effects in lateralized lexical decision: a replication study and meta-analysis

• DOI: 10.7717/peerj.11266
• Publication Date: 2021-04-28T08:51:35Z
• Authors: Adam J. Parker; Ciara Egan; Jack H. Grant; Sophie Harte; Brad T. Hudson; Zoe V.J. Woodhead
• Keywords: QH301-705.5; Laterality; Systematic review and meta-analysis; 05 social sciences; 150; R; Replication; C800 Psychology; Lateralized presentation; Cerebral hemisphere; 03 medical and health sciences; Orthographic neighbourhood effects; 0302 clinical medicine; Medicine; C800 - Psychology; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences; Biology (General); Neuroscience

The effect of orthographic neighbourhood size (N) on lexical decision reaction time differs when words are presented in the left or right visual fields. Evidence suggests a facilitatory N effect (i.e., faster reaction times for words with larger neighbourhoods) in the left visual field. However, the N effect in the right visual field remains controversial: it may have a weaker facilitative role or it may even be inhibitory. In a pre-registered online experiment, we replicated the interaction between N and visual field and provided support for an inhibitory N effect in the right visual field. We subsequently conducted a pre-registered systematic review and meta-analysis to synthesise the available evidence and determine the direction of N effects across visual fields. Based on the evidence, it would seem the effect is inhibitory in the right visual field. Furthermore, the size of the N effect is considerably smaller in the right visual field. Both studies revealed considerable heterogeneity between participants and studies, and we consider the implications of this for future work.