The effect of orthographic uniqueness and deviation points on lexical decisions: Evidence from unilateral and bilateral-redundant presentations Annukka K. Lindell, Michael E.R. Nicholls, and Anne E. Castles University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia Words with an early or late orthographic uniqueness point and nonwords with an early or late orthographic deviation point were presented to the left, right, or both visual fields simulta- neously. In Experiment 1, 20 participants made lexical decision judgements to horizontal stimu- lus presentations. In Experiment 2, a further 20 participants completed the task using vertical presentations to control for attentional biases. Consistent with previous research, words with ear- lier orthographic uniqueness points prompted faster responses across visual fields, regardless of stimulus orientation. Although research has suggested that the left hemisphere’s superiority for language processing stems from a comparatively parallel processing strategy, with the right hemi- sphere reliant upon a serial mechanism, left and right visual field presentations were not differen- tially affected by orthographic uniqueness point. This suggests that differential sequential effects previously reported result during processes other than retrieval from the lexicon. The overall right visual field advantage observed using horizontal presentations disappeared when stimuli were presented vertically. Contrary to expectations, there was a facilitatory effect of late ortho- graphic deviation point for horizontal nonword presentations. Overall, the results were inter- preted as being consistent with predictions of a cohort model of word recognition, and they highlighted the effect of stimulus orientation on left and right hemisphere word recognition. There is little question that the left cerebral hemisphere is a superior language processor. Damage to the left hemisphere results in striking linguistic deficits, frequently compromising both syntactic and phonological processing (e.g., Broca, 1865; Coslett & Saffran, 1998; Lenneberg, 1967). In contrast, right hemisphere damage produces less immediately apparent cognitive deficits and is rarely associated with profound loss of articulatory ability. Such clinical observations led to the classic “verbal/non-verbal” view of cerebral asymmetry, with the left hemisphere being the “dominant” linguistic hemisphere. Though it has long been Requests for reprints should be sent to Annukka Lindell, Department of Psychology, School of Behavioural Science, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia. Email: a.lindell@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au This work is part of the first-named author’s PhD research. Thanks are extended to Peter Kwantes for helpful suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper.  2003 The Experimental Psychology Society http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/pp/02724987.html DOI:10.1080/02724980244000341 THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, 2003, 56A (2), 287–307 Q0085—QJEP(A)07501/Jan 3, 03 (Fri)/ [21 pages – 2 Tables – 4 Figures – 0 Footnotes – 3 Appendices]. Cen- tre single caption. shortcut keys