We examined whether stereotypes of Latinos as less warm and less competent than Whites guided perceptions of individuals in interacting work groups. Both Whites and Latinos rated Latino group members as lower in competence and warmth than White group members. This occurred in work groups with a majority of White members as well as in work groups with a majority of Latino members. The most favorable ratings were received by solo Whites in majority Latino groups, whereas the least favorable ratings were received by solo Latinos in majority White groups. Implications and future directions for research are discussed.

The present experiments investigated hemispheric differences in the brain in accessing concrete and abstract word meanings. For this purpose, an automatic semantic priming paradigm was used with a short stimulus onset asynchrony between prime and target (250 msec.) as well as a low proportion of related trials (20%). Analysis showed that for concrete nouns, priming effects were observed in both hemispheres. There was greater priming in the right hemisphere, suggesting hemispheric differences in accessing semantic representations of concrete nouns. For abstract nouns, on the other hand, priming patterns in the right hemisphere were identical to those in the left hemisphere, suggesting that information about abstract nouns projected to the right hemisphere may be transferred to the dominant left hemisphere for further processing.

In 2002 Shibahara and Lucero-Wagoner, using a priming paradigm, reported a larger facilitation for concrete noun pairs in the right than left hemisphere when the stimulus onset asynchrony was 250 msec. Their related prime-target pairs were similar not only in meaning but also perceptual attributes, such as shape. They had reported such perceptual information to be available only in the right hemisphere early in target processing. Thus, we predicted that, when the stimulus onset asynchrony is long, there would be no effect of perceptual information on target processing in the right hemisphere, resulting in no hemispheric differences in the amount of facilitation. We also predicted that target processing would be inhibited by prior presentation of unrelated primes only in the left hemisphere because inhibition seems to be produced by the attention system in the left hemisphere. The present experiment was designed to test these predictions, using the stimulus onset asynchrony of 550 msec. and the same prime-target pairs. Analysis showed no hemispheric differences in the amount of facilitation, and inhibition effects for unrelated pairs were produced in both hemispheres. It is suggested that the inhibition effects in each hemisphere might be produced by different mechanisms.

No abstract

It is assumed that there are hemispheric differences in the type of information available for the processing of word meanings, e.g., categorical or associative information. In the present experiment, we used a semantic priming paradigm to examine whether perceptual or conceptual properties of word meanings would be associated with the left or right hemisphere. The present experiment also examined time-course activation of these properties across the hemispheres, using short and long stimulus onset asynchronies. The results indicated that perceptual information is available only in the right hemisphere at an early rather than a late stage of target processing, while conceptual information is available in both hemispheres at both early and later stages of target processing. It is suggested that the imagery system in the right hemisphere may contribute to the perceptual priming observed in this hemisphere.