Visual-field asymmetry in face recognition as a function of face discriminability and interstimulus interval.

Reaction times were measured for recognizing laterally presented faces as a function of two levels of face discriminability and three interstimulus-interval lengths between pairs of successively presented faces. Contrary to many face-recognition studies, no left visual-field/right-hemisphere advantage was observed for the recognition task. Instead, a right visual-field/left-hemisphere advantage occurred at the longest interstimulus interval (500 msec.) on trials on which faces were different and at the shortest interstimulus interval (5 msec.) on trials on which the faces were identical. It appears that visual-field asymmetries in face recognition may vary due to the characteristics of the stimuli and procedures used in face-recognition studies.