The influence of lateral orientation on cerebral processing.
An investigation was undertaken to determine if the lateral placement of a visual stimulus, and the observer's consequential eye-gaze position while orienting towards the stimulus, affects the observer's response to the stimulus. It was predicted that a lateral positioning of the eye-gaze would facilitate cerebral processing in the hemisphere contralateral to the direction of the eye-gaze. Because each hemisphere is generally specialized for certain types of processing, it was theorized that responses to "verbal" problems would be augmented when placed 20 degrees to the right of center as opposed to 20 degrees to the left of center; and that responses to "spatial" problems would be aided when the stimuli were located 20 degrees to the left of center as opposed to 20 degrees to the right of center. Twenty-four right-handed male and female adults served as subjects. Verbal problems consisted of a comparison of capital and noncapital letters. Spatial stimuli consisted of dot-and-square diagrams. In toto, the results of the performance tests are in partial support of the theory.
D000328:Adult; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral; D005133:Eye Movements; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D011340:Problem Solving; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D013028:Space Perception; D014796:Visual Perception