Asymmetries in the recognition of visual stimuli as a result of expertise

Abstract

In this talk, I will present recent findings from my lab to support the argument that hemispheric asymmetry in the recognition of different types of visual stimuli can be accounted for by differences in task requirements. I will start with presenting some behavioral data in the perception of faces and Chinese characters, which suggest that asymmetry in the perception of visual stimuli (i.e., the left side bias effect) reflects expertise in recognition at the categorical level. I will then present a computational model of visual stimulus recognition that implements a theory of hemispheric asymmetry in perception, i.e., differential spatial frequency processing in the two hemispheres, and demonstrate how various hemispheric asymmetry effects in the recognition of faces, Chinese characters, and words in alphabetic languages can be accounted for by visual and task characteristics of the recognition tasks alone, without assuming influences from linguist properties of the languages.