The effect of rehearsal on hemispheric processing in a memory recognition task.

The effect of rehearsal on right and left hemisphere performance was investigated in a recognition task in which a lateralized picture probe followed the presentation of two words in central vision. Half the 16 right-handed subjects rehearsed the pair of words vocally and half subvocally. Four different interstimulus intervals (0.5 s, 1.5 s, 3 s and 5 s) between words and picture probes were considered. Results showed no difference between the vocal and subvocal rehearsal conditions, an overall LVF right hemisphere advantage, and a trend in the linear component of the interaction visual field X interstimulus interval, indicating that the LVF advantage decreases as the interstimulus interval increases.