Researchers of cognitive processing in illiteracy have proposed that
the acquisition of literacy modifies the functional organization of the
brain. They have suggested that, while illiterate individuals have
access only to innate semantic processing skills, those who have
learned the correspondence between graphemes and phonemes have several
mechanisms available to them through which to process oral language. We
conducted 2 experiments to verify that suggestion with respect to
language processing, and to elucidate further the differences between
literate and illiterate individuals in the cognitive strategies used to
process oral language, as well as hemispheric specialization for these
processes. Our findings suggest that semantic processing strategies are
qualitatively the same in literates and illiterates, despite the fact
that overall performance is augmented by increased education. In
contrast, explicit processing of oral information based on phonological
characteristics appears to be qualitatively different between literates
and illiterates: effective strategies in the processing of phonological
information depend upon having had a formal education, regardless of
the level of education. We also confirmed the differential abilities
needed for the processing of semantic and phonological information and
related them to hemisphere-specific processing. (JINS, 2004,
10, 818–827.)