Visual masking with presentations in same and opposite visual fields: evidence for contralateral masking.

Three experiments were conducted in a preliminary attempt to study the effects of presentations of an informational target stimulus to the right or left visual fields when the target was either preceded or followed by a noninformational masking stimulus and when the mask was presented to the same or opposite visual field of the target. Results indicated that masking was more effective in the same than in the opposite visual field but that masking of the opposite visual field was feasible for both forward and backward masking. Laterality effects were also found for forward and backward masking, with a modest advantage of the right visual field (left hemisphere) in both cases. Limitations of the data and directions for future research were discussed.