Visual field asymmetries for rhyme and semantic tasks in fluent and nonfluent bilinguals.

A tachistoscopic study investigated hemispheric specialization among fluent and nonfluent bilinguals for rhyme and semantic tasks in both their languages. Fluent bilinguals gave faster responses and made fewer errors in their responses to the words presented in the RVF(LH) while the opposite happened for nonfluent, which indicates greater RH participation in the first stages of a second language. Fluent bilinguals performed better not only in the second but also in their native language, suggesting superior language skills on the part of fluent bilinguals. A LVF(RH) superiority was obtained for semantic tasks, indicating RH participation in semantic judgments. Another finding was a high ratio of first-born children among fluent bilinguals, potentially explained in terms of parental attitudes toward first- versus later born children. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.