Evidence for two types of spatial representations: hemispheric specialization for categorical and coordinate relations.
Analyses of human object recognition abilities led to the hypothesis that 2 kinds of spatial relation representations are used in human vision. Evidence for the distinction between abstract categorical spatial relation representations and specific coordinate spatial relation representations was provided in 4 experiments. These results indicate that Ss make categorical judgments--on/off, left/right, and above/below--faster when stimuli are initially presented to the left cerebral hemisphere, whereas they make evaluations of distance--in relation to 2 mm, 3 mm, or 1 in. (2.54 cm)--faster when stimuli are initially presented to the right cerebral hemisphere. In addition, there was evidence that categorical representations developed with practice.
Kosslyn
S M
SM
Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.
Koenig
O
O
Barrett
A
A
Cave
C B
CB
Tang
J
J
Gabrieli
J D
JD
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003210:Concept Formation; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004215:Distance Perception; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D005556:Form Perception; D005795:Generalization, Stimulus; D006801:Humans; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011930:Reaction Time