Spatial Representation of Action Phrases Among Bidirectional Readers
The Effect of Language Environment and Sentence Complexity
Abstract
Perceptual bias in simple visuospatial tasks, such as line bisection seen among healthy dextrals, has often been attributed to the hemispheric activation hypothesis. The often reported leftward perceptual bias was explained by an activation of the right hemisphere during visuospatial tasks. However, imposed scanning direction and stimuli saliency have also been used to explain these spatial asymmetries. One example of scanning direction is the well-trained one resulting from reading direction. Here, we present studies that target the role of reading direction on nonverbal tasks: line bisection, esthetic preference, and straight-ahead pointing by comparing left-to-right and right-to-left readers. The findings are discussed regarding the interaction between cultural factors, such as reading habits, and biological factors, such as cerebral lateralization.
References
1991). Cultural influences on visual scanning patterns. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 22, 525–534.
(2006). Orthographic directionality and thematic role illustration in English and Arabic. Brain and Language, 97, 306–316.
(2003). Language representation and working memory with bilinguals. Journal of Communication Disorders, 36, 233–240.
(2001). Does language shape thought? Mandarin and English speakers’ conceptions of time. Cognitive Psychology, 43, 1–22.
(1996). Learning how to structure space for language: A crosslinguistic perspective. In , Language and space (pp. 385– 436). Cambridge, MA: MIT.
(2004). Gender differences in implicit and explicit memory for affective passages. Brain and Cognition, 54, 218–224.
(1995). Language comprehension: Sentence and discourse processing. Annual Review of Psychology, 46, 91–120.
(2001). Language and space: Some interactions. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5, 55–61.
(1999). Verbs, events and spatial representations. Neuropsychologia, 37, 395–402.
(2002). On the origin of free-viewing perceptual asymmetries. Cortex, 38, 109–112.
(1997). Length representation in normal and neglect subjects with opposite reading habits studied through a line extension task. Cortex, 33, 47–64.
(1995). Reading habits and line bisection: A developmental approach. Brain Research: Cognitive Brain Research, 3, 51–58.
(2000). Reading habits influence esthetic preference. Brain Research: Cognitive Brain Research, 10, 45–49.
(1993). Influence of reading habits on line bisection. Brain Research: Cognitive Brain Research, 1, 219–222.
(2007). How writing system and age influence spatial representations of actions: A developmental, cross-linguistic study. Psychological Science, 18, 487–491.
(1997). Linguistic anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
(2008). Culture-sensitive neural substrates of human cognition: A transcultural neuroimaging approach. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9, 646–654.
(2004). Conceptual precursors to language. Nature, 430, 453–456.
(2008). Paying attention to reading direction. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9, 965.
(2009). Egocentric reference in bidirectional readers as measured by the straight-ahead pointing task. Brain Research, 1247, 133–141.
(2006). The semantics of space: Integrating linguistic typology and cognitive neuroscience. Neuropsychologia, 44, 1607–1621.
(1973). The asymmetry of the human brain. Scientific American, 228, 70–78.
(1978). On the representations of experience: Language interpretation and communication. New York: Plenum.
(1993). “What” and “where” in spatial language and spatial cognition. Behavioral Brain Science, 16, 217–265.
(2003). Spatial language. In , Encyclopedia of cognitive science (pp. 131–137). London: Nature Publishing Group.
(2006). In your right mind: Right hemisphere contributions to language processing and production. Neuropsychology Review, 16, 131–148.
(2003). Directional bias in the mental representation of spatial events: Nature or culture? Psychological Science, 14, 296–301.
(1992). The foundations of conceptual thought in infancy. Cognitive Development, 7, 273–285.
(2001). An fMRI investigation of sentence comprehension by eye and by ear: Modality fingerprints on cognitive processes. Human Brain Mapping, 13, 239–252.
(1992). Lateral motion bias associated with reading direction. Vision Research, 32, 1137–1141.
(2002). Can free-viewing perceptual asymmetries be explained by scanning, premotor or attentional biases? Cortex, 38, 113–136.
(2010). Thinking about the future moves attention to the right. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human, Perception and Performance, 36, 17–24.
(2010). Is the future the right time? Experimental Psychology, 57, 308–314.
(2009). Connecting and separating mindsets: Culture as situated cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 217–235.
(2004). Language, learning, and color perception. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13, 95–98.
(2000). A cultural effect on brain function. Nature Neuroscience, 3, 91–96.
(1999). The influence of culture on cognition. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 14, 581–592.
(1980). Life-span age trends in laterality. Journal of Gerontology, 35, 715–721.
(2002). Language and the bicultural self. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28, 1040–1050.
(2007). Time (also) flies from left to right. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 14, 512–516.
(2002). Reading direction and spatial neglect. Cortex, 38, 59–67.
(2000). Chinese and Americans see opposite apparent motions in a Chinese character. Cognition, 74, 27–32.
(1989). Asymmetries in the perception of facial affect: Is there an influence of reading habits? Neuropsychologia, 27, 1277–1287.
(1972). Hemispheric asymmetries in tachistoscopic information processing. British Journal of Psychology, 63, 497–508.
(1993). The Wide Range Achievement Test Third Edition. Wilmington, DE: Wide Range.
(1976). Sex and single hemisphere: Specialization of the right hemisphere for spatial processing. Science, 193, 425–427.
(1983). The development of right hemisphere abilities. In , Functions of the right cerebral hemisphere (pp. 147–169). London: Academic Press.
(2004). Choosing sides: Lateralization in line trisection and quadrisection as a function of reading direction and handedness. Cognitive Brain Research, 20, 206–211.
(