title: Evidence for two types of spatial representations: hemispheric specialization for categorical and coordinate relations.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138.
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Kosslyn
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Koenig
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barrett
authors.forename: C B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Cave
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Gabrieli
mesh_terms: 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