Atchley, R. A., Keeney, M., & Burgess, C. (1996). Cerebral Hemispheric Mechanisms Linking Ambiguous Word Meaning Retrieval with Subjects Varying in Verbal Creativity. Brain and Cognition, 32, 282-284

Presentation at the 1996 Tennet Conference. (Left to right) R. A. Atchley; M. Keeney; C. Burgess

Lexically ambiguous words were used in a divided visual field priming paradigm to determine if both hemispheres or only the right hemisphere are involved with ambiguity resolution, a key aspect of verbal creativity. The Wallach-Kogan similarities subtest was used to divide 84 subjects into three levels of verbal creativity to compare their performance on the Burgess and Simpson (1988) divided visual field task. Both the left and right hemispheres seem to be contributing to the maintenance of multible word meanings in highly creative subjects, while less creative subjects show sustained subordinate priming only in the right hemisphere or no sustained subordinate priming. These results support a collaborative theory of verbal creativity (Bogen & Bogen, 1969).