This paper attempts to show that the recognition of a visual-spatial display is achieved by assigning a structural description to that display. Two studies are reported in which adult human subjects were timed as they made same-different judgments about the orientation of a line segment relative to another line segment differing in orientation and position. Substantially more time was required to compare oblique lines than was required to compare horizontal and vertical lines with the left oblique being substantially more difficult than the right oblique. Further, for obliques, position is processed prior to and independent of the assignment of distinctive orientation. The evidence is accounted for by postulating that orientation and position are coded in terms of a common underlying system for representing space having as basic constituents two primary axes, horizontal and vertical, with positive and negative poles on each of these dimensions. The generality of such a cognitive system for processing spatial information is discussed.'The collapsing of two discrete forms onto a single lexical item is strong evidence of markedness according to J.H. Greenberg (1963) and H.H. Clark (1973).
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