Recognition memory and hemispheric specialization were assessed for abstract colour/black and white pictures of sport situations in painters and visually naive subjects using a forced choice yes/no tachistoscopic procedure. Reaction times showed a significant three-way interaction of picture type, expertise, and visual field, indicating that painters processed the abstract pictures in the right hemisphere and sport pictures leftwards relative to the novices. The novices showed an overall LVF/RH advantage, strongest for sport pictures. The opposing gradients in the painters indicate a preferential change of processing strategy by which descriptive systems appear to have developed for figurative, but not abstract pictures.