title: Directional scanning effect and strength of reading habit in picture naming and recall.
abstract: The present research examined directional scanning effects (DSE) as a function of reading habit strength among right handers. A picture array naming and recall task was administered to three groups of child readers--unidirectional right-to-left readers of Arabic, unidirectional left-to-right readers of Kannada, and bidirectional readers of Urdu and English--and one group of Urdu illiterate adults. The results showed a right-to-left DSE in the Arabic and Urdu readers. In the latter group the strength of the scanning effect decreased with greater schooling in English. No R-L effect was observed in the Kannada readers or in the Urdu illiterates. These results extend prior research in documenting an "invasion" of culturally acquired reading scan habits onto a nonlinguistic domain. It is suggested that directional scanning effects be controlled or else directly examined in future laterality research involving nonlinguistic stimuli.
authors.affiliation: University of Mysore, India. prakashp9@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Prakash
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Padakannaya
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Devi
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zaveria
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Chengappa
authors.forename: Jyotsna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vaid
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D006184:Habits; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D011939:Mental Recall; D011932:Reading; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014825:Vocabulary