Abstract: This experiment studied the recognition of phonograms (Tibetan and Uighur characters) and idiograms (Chinese characters) in Tibetan and Uighur people (n= 60 for the two groups respectively). The results show that in recognizing the Chinese characters, whether a character was pres- ented to the right visual field or to the left visual field made no differe- nce to any of the two groups of subjects, while there was a significant difference between the two groups in recognizing the Tibetan and Uihgur characters: for those Tibetan subjects who had mastered and used Chinese for many years (more than 5 years), both visual fields worked equally well, but for those Tibetan subjects having learned Chinese for about one year and the Uighur subjects having learned Chinese for about 4 years, there was a left visual field superiority. The results show that both hem- ispheres worked equally well in recognizing the ideograms while there was an influence of learning Chinese on the recognition of the phonograms, causing a change from the left visual field superiority to the equality of both visual fields.

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