Anticlockwise or clockwise? A dynamic Perception-Action-Laterality model for directionality bias in visuospatial functioning

Abstract

Reviewing the relevant literature in visual psychophysics and visual neuroscience we propose a three-stage model of directionality bias in visuospatial functioning. We call this model the ‘Perception-Action-Laterality’ (PAL) hypothesis. We analyzed the research findings for a wide range of visuospatial tasks, showing that there are two major directionality trends: clockwise versus anticlockwise. It appears these preferences are combinatorial, such that a majority of people fall in the first category demonstrating a preference for stimuli/objects arranged from left-to-right rather than from right-to-left, while people in the second category show an opposite trend. These perceptual biases can guide sensorimotor integration and action, creating two corresponding turner groups in the population. In support of PAL, we propose another model explaining the origins of the biases– how the neurogenetic factors and the cultural factors interact in a biased competition framework to determine the direction and extent of biases. This dynamic model can explain not only the two major categories of biases, but also the unbiased, unreliably biased or mildly biased cases in visuosptial functioning.

The right way to kiss: directionality bias in head-turning during kissing

“…However, the impact of the kiss initiators’ head-turning direction on the kiss recipients’ head-turning direction demonstrated in this study leads us to argue that the head-turning bias developed in such a dynamic manner may not always be apparent in behavioral expression or may be apparent in a reversed direction depending on the immediate environmental situation 17 . Thus in our study the kiss recipients’ tendency to match their partners’ head-turning direction during kissing might have been to avoid discomfort that could potentially be felt upon turning the head to the opposite side (i.e., orienting at the same line in space).…”

Alteration of brain dynamics during natural dual-task walking

“…Only right-handed participants were recruited, and the walking direction was chosen to be counterclockwise in order to avoid possible effects of handedness on the turning behavior (Angelique et al, 2002; Mohr et al, 2004Mohr et al, , 2007Karim et al, 2016). Second, the height of the sphere and the stimuli were fixed at the height of the participant (right above the eye level) and not to the headset, such that the sphere was not affected by head movement during locomotion.…”

Directionality in Aesthetic Judgments and Performance Evaluation: Sport Judges and Laypeople Compared

“…We recruited a total of 96 left-to-right reading participants who were predominantly right-handed as the left-to-right directional bias is predicted to be most reliable in these individuals ( Levy, 1976 ; McLaughlin et al, 1983 ; Karim et al, 2016 ). Forty-eight gymnastic judges [46 females; age: M = 24.79 years, SD = 10.72; judging experience in gymnastics: M = 7.38 years, SD = 6.27; judging licenses: 3 × A (highest), 2 × B, 21 × C, 22 × D] and 48 laypeople without experience in judging gymnastics or the like (25 females; age: M = 25.21 years, SD = 3.14) took voluntarily part in the two experiments.…”

“…Asymmetry in scanning habit established through reading and writing in one particular direction over years has been proposed as one mechanism eliciting directional bias in tasks (un)related to reading and writing ( Kazandjian and Chokron, 2008 ; Vaid, 2011 ; Karim et al, 2016 ). For example, a bias in the direction of reading/writing habit has been found in the spatial representation of actions ( Maass and Russo, 2003 ; Dobel et al, 2007 ), line bisection ( Chokron and Imbert, 1993 ), aesthetic preferences ( Nachson et al, 1999 ; Chokron and De Agostini, 2000 ; Ishii et al, 2011 ), performance evaluation ( Maass et al, 2007 ) and the perception of motion ( Morikawa and McBeath, 1992 ) or speed ( Szego and Rutherford, 2008 ).…”