Evidence for a right hemisphere superiority and for a serial search strategy in a dot detection task.

In Experiment I the subjects manually signaled whether a solid dot was present or not in an array of empty dots presented either in the right or in the left visual field. The dots were either three or six in number and the target could appear in any of the possible locations. The results showed (a) a left visual field superiority; (b) a left hand superiority; (c) faster responses to three-dot than to six-dot displays, and (d) an effect of the location of the target in the display. Experiment II exactly replicated the previous experiment with the exception that the stimuli were centrally projected. The results showed: (a) a left hand superiority; (b) an effect of the number of dots in the display. These results can be interpreted to indicate: (a) a right hemisphere specialization in a simple feature detection task without any spatial component; (b) the compatibility of a right-hemisphere advantage with a serial search strategy.