Scanning of speechless comics changes spatial biases in mental model construction

The mental representation of both time and number shows lateral spatial biases, which can be affected by habitual reading and writing direction. However, this effect is in place before children begin to read. One potential early cause is the experiences of looking at picture books together with a carer, as those images also follow the directionality of the script. What is the underlying mechanism for this effect? In the present study, we test the possibility that such experiences induce spatial biases in mental model construction, a mechanism which is a good candidate to induce the biases observed with numbers and times. We presented a speechless comic in either standard (left-to-right) or mirror-reversed (right-to-left) form to adult Spanish participants. We then asked them to draw the scene depicted by sentences like 'the square is between the cross and the circle'. The position of the lateral objects in these drawings reveals the spatial biases at work when building mental models in working memory. Under conditions of highly consistent directionality, the mirror comic changed pre-existing lateral biases. Processes of mental model construction in working memory stand as a potential mechanism for the generation of spatial biases for time and number.This article is part of the theme issue 'Varieties of abstract concepts: development, use and representation in the brain'.

Directionality in Copying: Memory, Handedness, and Alignment Effects

Explored were the effects of memory, handedness, and the relative position of model and copy on the sequential behavior (starting points and stroke progressions) of children copying a set of shapes. Exp. 1 (memory) involved 46 kindergarten children; Exp. 2 (handedness), 36 kindergartners; and Exp. 3 (alignment and proximity), 20 children from each of Grades K, 2, and 4. Availability of the model had no effect; children followed the same paths when copying with the model present or with it absent. Handedness, however, affected left-right directionality, while the proximity of model and copy affected threading and, to a lesser extent, top-bottom directionality. The results are discussed in terms of implications for questions about sources of directionality.

Developmental Trends in Directionality of Drawing in Jewish and Arab Israeli Children

Jewish and Arab Israeli children (n = 484), attending pre-kindergarten to eighth grade, were required to copy a vertical and a horizontal line. Partial samples were also tested using the WPPSI. It was found that Jewish and Arab children were similar in their preference for top-bottom directionality, but in copying the horizontal line Jewish children used mostly a left-right and Arab children used mostly a right-left stroke. Correlations with the WPPSI indicated that starting from the right was correlated with higher intelligence for Arabs and with lower intelligence for Jews. The significance of these findings is discussed in the context of the writing requirements of the Hebrew and Arabic languages.

Directional Scanning of Visual Stimuli

Effect of directional set of horizontal scanning tendencies of visual stimuli was studied on male and female subjects with opposite left-right reading habits. Forty English readers and 40 Hebrew readers (in each group 20 males and 20 females) were presented with horizontal arrays of letter stimuli (either English or Hebrew letters) and of nonletter stimuli (circle and bar patterns) for scanning. Half of the subjects were presented with the letter stimuli first (set condition), and the other half were presented with the nonletter stimuli first (no-set condition). The results showed that experimental set affected the direction of scanning of nonletter as well as of letter stimuli. This effect was usually stronger for males than for females. Differential directional effects were found for English and for Hebrew letters. Reading habits affected performance on the nonletter tests, and interacted with the directional stimulus effects on the letter tests.

Directional Scanning as a Function of Stimulus Characteristics, Reading Habits, and Directional Set

Direction of scanning of horizontally presented visual stimuli was studied as a function of directional stimulus characteristics, subject's acquired reading habits, and experimentally manipulated directional set. Thirty-two English readers and 32 Hebrew readers were shown stimuli with directional characteristics (English and Hebrew letters) and stimuli with no directional characteristics (arrays of different circles, bars, colors, and geometric figures) for scanning. The results showed that, while directional stimulus characteristics affected the direction of scanning of letter stimuli, reading habits affected the strength of these directional scanning tendencies. Nonletter stimuli were found to be differentially affected by reading habits. Experimentally manipulated conditions affected performance, but specific set effect was found for Hebrew readers only. Finally, Takala's finding of subjects' tendency to attend to stimuli in the left visual field was reconfirmed and extended in the present study.

Direction and Sequence in Copying

To explore the nature of directional experience and directional behavior in countries with different scripts, children and adults in the United States and in Israel were asked to copy a number of geometric shapes. The paths or sequences of strokes displayed some common developmental trends together with some specific differences stemming from the patterns taught for forming letters. Generalization from letter patterns, however, followed a nonlinear course: strongest at the time when writing is first being mastered and then declining. A similar course, it is suggested, may occur in generalizations among other cognitive or perceptual behaviors.

Directional Scanning of Visual Displays

In spite of the fact that Chinese readers are accustomed to reading Chinese either from top to bottom, from right to left, or from left to right, they chose to scan predominantly from top to bottom and from left to right when presented with patterned arrays of familiar stimulus materials. Two groups of Chinese subjects, 30 high school and 30 university students, were tested on a naming task using six types of material. There was no difference between the two groups in their preference for direction of scan, and the scanning patterns were highly systematic and unaffected by stimulus materials. Further analysis of subjects' scanning patterns suggested that a general top-to-bottom and left-to-right scanning tendency, so familiar to English readers, also prevails in the Chinese subject's performance.

Perceptual Exploration in Israeli Jewish and Bedouin Children

A sample of 104 Israeli Bedouin children were tested in an attempt to clarify further the factors influencing developmental trends in visual perceptual exploration. In addition to a further demonstration of the influence of the specific characteristics of the language of school instruction, the findings suggest the importance of extra-school reading opportunities. A discrepancy between two indices of perceptual exploration was related to different aspects of reading development. While the Bedouin children's perceptual exploration might be considered less mature in some ways related to reading, this was not the case with other aspects of perceptual exploration.

Cultural Influences on Visual Scanning Patterns

Visual scanning studies involving more than one cultural group have demonstrated differences in scanning behavior. These studies have all used recall to test for scanning patterns. Eye movement research, which directly records scanning behavior, has traditionally employed Western subjects. The present experiment used eye movement photography to study cultural influences on visual scanning patterns. Thirty adult subjects were tested, representing the Western, Middle Eastern, and East Asian cultures. Data on location of fixations and direction of saccades (horizontal or vertical and right to left or left to right) were collected. No significant differences were found for location of fixations. Data on the direction of saccades revealed significant differences, all of which reflected the reading habits of the different cultures. These data corroborated the results of previous cross-cultural studies.

Reading and writing direction effects on the aesthetic appreciation of photographs

Does reading and writing direction (RWD) influence the aesthetic appreciation of photography? Pérez González showed that nineteenth-century Iranian and Spanish professional photographers manifest lateral biases linked to RWD in their compositions. The present study aimed to test whether a population sample showed similar biases. Photographs with left-to-right (L-R) and right-to-left (R-L) directionality were selected from Pérez González's collections and presented in both original and mirror-reversed forms to Spanish (L-R readers) and Moroccan (R-L readers) participants. In Experiment 1, participants rated each picture for its aesthetic pleasingness. The results showed neither effects of lateral organization nor interactions with RWD. In Experiment 2, each picture and its mirror version were presented together and participants chose the one they liked better. Spaniards preferred rightward versions and Moroccans preferred leftward versions. RWD therefore affects aesthetic impressions of photography in our participants when people pay attention to the lateral spatial dimension of pictures. The observed directional aesthetic preferences were not sensitive to the sex of the model in the photographs, failing to support expectations from the hypotheses of emotionality and agency. Preferences were attributable to the interaction between general scanning strategies and scanning habits linked to RWD.

Reading direction causes spatial biases in mental model construction in language understanding

Correlational evidence suggests that the experience of reading and writing in a certain direction is able to induce spatial biases at both low-level perceptuo-motor skills and high-level conceptual representations. However, in order to support a causal relationship, experimental evidence is required. In this study, we asked whether the direction of the script is a sufficiente cause of spatial biases in the mental models that understanders build when listening to language. In order to establish causality, we manipulated the experience of reading a script with different directionalities. Spanish monolinguals read either normal (left-to-right), mirror reversed (right-to-left), rotated downward (up-down), or rotated upward (down-up) texts, and then drew the contents of auditory descriptions such as "the square is between the cross and the triangle". The directionality of the drawings showed that a brief reading experience is enough to cause congruent and very specific spatial biases in mental model construction. However, there were also clear limits to this flexibility: there was a strong overall preference to arrange the models along the horizontal dimension. Spatial preferences when building mental models from language are the results of both short-term and long-term biases.

Spatial biases in understanding descriptions of static scenes: the role of reading and writing direction

Prior studies on reasoning tasks have shown lateral spatial biases on mental model construction, which converge with known spatial biases in the mental representation of number, time, and events. The latter have been shown to be related to habitual reading and writing direction. The present study bridges and extends both research strands by looking at the processes of mental model construction in language comprehension and examining how they are influenced by reading and writing direction. Sentences like "the table is between the lamp and the TV" were auditorily presented to groups of mono- and bidirectional readers in languages with left-to-right or right-to-left scripts, and participants were asked to draw the described scene. There was a clear preference for deploying the lateral objects in the direction marked by the script of the input language and some hints of a much smaller effect of the degree of practice with the script. These lateral biases occurred in the context of universal strategies for working memory management.

Script Directionality Affects Depiction of Depth in Representational Drawings

This research examined the influence of directional reading/writing habits on the representation of depth in a scene. Participants with English vs. Arabic language backgrounds were asked to represent an imagined scene containing two houses, a “near house” and a “far house.” Nearly all participants drew the near house larger than the far house and drew the near house before drawing the far house. However, significant group differences in spatial strategies and movement biases were noted. Whereas the majority of native English readers drew the near house on the left side of the page and the far house to the right of it, native Arabic readers showed a slight right bias in placement of the near house and tended to place the far house to the left of the near house. This effect of script direction characterized right-handed and left-handed users of each group. Taken together, the findings support a cultural account of asymmetries in representational drawing reflecting biases arising from prolonged experience in reading and writing in a particular direction.

The effects of reading-writing direction on the asymmetry of space perception and directional tendencies: A comparison between French and Tunisian children

We compared the influence of reading and writing habits on the asymmetry of space perception and the directional tendencies of French and Tunisian right-handers, aged 5, 7, and 9 years. By comparing two groups of children who use the opposite direction for writing (from left to right for French, from right to left for Arabic), before and after being taught to read in school, we evaluated the impact of writing direction on these asymmetries. A bisection task, a circle-drawing task, and a dot-filling task were used to assess spatial asymmetries and directional tendencies. On the bisection task, a group difference emerged at 9 years, with the French children bisecting the line to the left of the true centre, and the Tunisian children showing no bias. On the circle-drawing task, there was a group difference from 7 years on, as the French children, but not the Tunisian children, used increasing counterclockwise movements. Finally, on the dot-filling task performed with the right hand, the French children filled in significantly more dots when going from left to right from 7 years on, whereas Tunisian children filled in more dots when going from right to left. These results show the impact of basic tendencies in younger children (ipsilateral bias in line bisection, clockwise direction in circle drawing, outward tendency for horizontal displacement in dot filling), as well as the impact of writing direction on spatial asymmetries after learning to read. The results are also discussed in reference to the differences between the two languages, the closeness of the French direction of writing to spontaneous neural-based tendencies, and the influence of learning French at age 8 for the Tunisian children.

Reading direction and spatial neglect

Many American and European investigators have reported that hemispatial neglect is more frequent and more severe after right than left hemisphere lesions. This hemispheric asymmetry may be due to biological asymmetries, learned behavior, or both. Readers of European languages, unlike readers of Semitic languages, scan from left to right. Learned rightward scanning may increase the unilateral neglect associated with right hemisphere lesions and reduce the severity of neglect associated with left hemisphere lesions. To learn if hemispheric asymmetries of neglect are influenced by learned scanning behavior, we used line bisection and cancellation tasks to study patients with unilateral stroke who read only a Semitic or European language before the age of fifteen. We found that independent of reading direction, unilateral neglect was more commonly associated with right than left hemisphere lesions. After right hemisphere damage right to left readers bisected lines closer to center than left to right readers, but on the cancellation test readers of European languages did not perform differently than readers of Semitic languages. These findings suggest that whereas learned scan direction may influence the severity of neglect when measured by line bisection, these learned directional scans cannot fully account for the observed hemisphere asymmetries of neglect. They also suggest that the line bisection test is more influenced by the direction of scanning than is the cancellation test.

Reading habits and line bisection: a developmental approach

120 normal right-handed subjects, children and adults, with opposite reading habits (60 French, left-to-right readers, 60 Israeli, right-to-left readers) and 60 pre-school children (30 French and 30 Israeli), were submitted to a visuo-motor bisection task. Bisection is found to be dependent upon reading habits with a leftward deviation of the subjective middle for left-to-right readers, and a rightward bias for right-to-left readers. Even before formal reading learning, French and Israeli pre-school children differ significantly in bisecting a line. Results are discussed with respect to hemispheric activation theories and directional hypotheses.

Directional preferences in perception of visual stimuli

The present paper reviews a series of studies regarding the effects of hemispheric asymmetry and reading and writing habits on directional preferences in reproducing horizontally-displayed visual stimuli. Hebrew readers, English readers, and Arabic readers were presented with arrays of horizontally-displayed directional and nondirectional stimuli, as well as with single stimuli. They were asked to reproduce the stimuli, and the direction of their reproduction, left-right or right-left, was recorded for analysis. Generally, in reproducing arrays of stimuli, English readers showed left-right directionality, whereas Hebrew readers showed right-left directionality. But in reproducing arrays of English and Hebrew letters, subjects of both groups showed left-right and right-left preferences, respectively. However, the right-left directional preferences shown by Hebrew readers were weaker than the left-right preferences shown by English readers. It was hypothesized that these differences are due to differential reading and writing habits acquired in school by English- and Hebrew-readers. In support of the reading and writing habit hypothesis, it was subsequently found that: (a) Arabic readers, who have stronger right-left reading and writing habits than Hebrew readers, show relatively stronger right-left directional preferences, and (b) with the introduction of English as a foreign language in the fifth grade, children show an increase in left-right directionality. Further investigation showed that, depending on the experimental conditions, directional preferences may be a function of either reading and writing habits, or hemispheric asymmetry, or both. Finally, the bearing of these findings on the "nature-nurture" controversy regarding the development of perceptual exploration in children is discussed.

Directional preferences of bilingual children

Effects of simultaneous acquisition of differential reading and writing habits (in English and Hebrew) on directional preferences were investigated for 72 bilingual children in Grades 1 to 6. The children reproduced series of single and multiple stimuli; horizontal directions of their responses were recorded. Increased age was accompanied by growing left-right directional preferences in response to all stimuli but Hebrew letters, for which the reversed right-left preferences appeared. These data corroborate previous findings showing effects of reading and writing habits on directional preferences.

Asymmetry in lateral directionality

Effects of laterality and reading habits on directional preferences were investigated in two experiments. The subjects (N = 40 and 33 in Experiments I and II respectively) were right-and left-handed, male and female Israelis, whose native tongue was Hebrew. They identified and reproduced horizontal arrays of visual stimuli, which were presented either simultaneously (Experiment I), or sequentially (Experiment II). Directional preferences of the subjects' responses were recorded and analyzed. In Experiment I subjects of all groups showed similar, left-right directional preferences. In Experiment II right handers showed right-left preferences, whereas left handers showed inconsistent response patterns. Sex differences appeared among left handers only. The results were interpreted as showing the predominance of reading habit effects in Experiment I, and of laterality effects in Experiment II. It was therefore concluded that, depending on the experimental conditions, directional preferences may be a function of either reading habits, or laterality, or both.

Left-right sequencing in unschooled children: a function of learning or maturation

The relative influence of experience and maturation on the development of left-right directionality was investigated. The subjects were 15 3- and 9 4-yr.-old black and Puerto Rican children who had failed to use a left-right sequence in counting arrays of checkers. Within each age level approximately equal numbers of girls and boys were assigned to experimental and control groups (ns = 12). Experimental children were trained to count using the left entry and the rightwards directional movement. Trained girls and boys used significantly more left-right and alternative linear counting strategies on a posttest given three days following training than did untrained children. Trained girls, but not boys, retained the left-right strategy in the second posttest 2 wk. later. The findings suggest that both learning and maturation may influence directionality in perceptual exploration.

Directional scanning and cerebral asymmetries in processing visual stimuli

A perceptual exploration task involving three horizontal linear arrays of stimuli was administered to 167 children ranging in age from 3 to 7 yr. It was found that the well organized, predominantly right-to-left responses of very young children were eventually replaced by left-to-right patterns. A tachistoscopic test showed that Ss who gave right-to-left responses to the linear arrays showed hemispheric asymmetry of perception. The results were interpreted as supporting the view that directional response tendencies are related to hemispheric asymmetry.