INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY, 2011, 46 (2), 119–126 Hemispheric asymmetry in recognition memory: Effects of retention level on the recognition of Portuguese words Jorge Oliveira University Luso ´fona, Lisbon, Portugal Maria Victoria Perea and Valentina Ladera Salamanca University, Salamanca, Spain Pedro Gamito University Luso ´fona, Lisbon, Portugal E arly findings from Broca and Wernicke led to the classical view of hemispheric specialization, where the main idea relates to left-hemisphere language capabilities compared to right-hemisphere visual capabilities. Federmeier and Benjamin (2005) have suggested that semantic encoding for verbal information in the right hemisphere can be more effective when memory demands are higher. In light of this, our main goal was to study the effect of retention level of verbal information on hemispheric processes. However, regarding the cross-linguistic differences in orthography and their subsequent effects on word recognition (Frost, Katz, & Bentin, 1987), our intent was also to test prior predictions of Federmeier and Benjamin (2005) for a ‘‘shallow’’ orthography language, where words have a clear correspondence between graphemes and phonemes, as opposed to English, which is a ‘‘deep’’ orthography language. Portuguese concrete nouns were selected. The participants were submitted to a visual half-field word presentation using a continuous recognition memory paradigm. The retention level included 1, 2, 4, 8, 20 or 40 words. Results showed that recognition accuracy was higher for words studied in the right visual field, compared to those studied in the left visual field, when the retention interval included 2, 4, or 20 words. No significant differences were found for the remaining intervals. Further analysis on accuracy data for intermediate retention levels showed that recognition accuracy was higher for the 2 words retention level than for the levels including 4, 8, or 20 words; it was higher for left-hemisphere encoding as well. Our results also indicated that reaction times were slower for left-hemisphere encoding and for the 40 words retention level when compared to that of 20 words. In summary, the current results are in partial agreement with those of Federmeier and Benjamin (2005) and suggest different hemispheric memory strategies for the semantic encoding of verbal information. Keywords: Hemispheric asymmetry; Portuguese; Recognition memory. L es premiers re´sultats de Broca et Wernicke ont mene´ a` la vision classique de la spe´cialisation he´misphe´rique, dans laquelle la principale ide´ e se rapporte aux capacite´ s langagie` res de l’he´ misphe` re gauche comparativement aux capacite´s visuelles de l’he´misphe`re droit. Federmeier et Benjamin (2005) avaient sugge´re´ que l’encodage se´mantique des informations verbales dans l’he´misphe`re droit peut eˆtre plus efficace quand les demandes mne´ moniques sont plus e´ leve´ es. A ` la lumie` re de ceci, notre but principal e´ tait d’e´ tudier l’effet du niveau de re´tention de l’information verbale sur le traitement he´misphe´rique. Cependant, compte tenu des diffe´rences entre les langues sur le plan de l’orthographe et de leurs effets subse´quents sur la reconnaissance des mots (Frost, Katz, & Bentin, 1987), notre but e´tait e´galement de tester les pre´dictions ante´rieures de Federmeier et Benjamin (2005) pour une orthographe « superficielle » du langage, ou` les mots pre´sentent une correspondance claire entre Correspondence should be addressed to Jorge Oliveira, Faculty of Psychology, University Luso´fona de Humanidades e Tecnologias, Campo Grande, 376, 1749-024 Lisbon, Portugal. (E-mail: j14oliveira@gmail.com). ß 2010 International Union of Psychological Science http://www.psypress.com/ijp DOI: 10.1080/00207594.2010.519770