Chinese character recognition in the left and right visual fields

We report an experiment investigating the effect of priming on the recognition of Chinese characters in the left visual field (LVF) and the right visual field (RVF). Two types of character were used. compound targets, which contain separate radical components, and integrated targets, which do not contain separate components. Phonological priming effects on compound target recognition were found following a 50-ms SOA, but these were restricted to the RVF. There was no evidence of phonological priming on integrated target recognition in either visual field. We argue that character type constrains the activation of phonology during Chinese character recognition and that this is primarily a left hemisphere activity for Chinese speakers.