title: Is there an assignment of top and bottom during symmetry perception?
abstract: We report data from a discrimination task in which participants had to decide whether a single-item display was either vertically symmetric or asymmetric. This decision was found to be easier when items with a top bottom polarity were placed in an orientation where the wide end was the base of the stimulus and the narrow end was the top. The difference in reaction times between this orientation and its inversion was about 10 ms. We suggest that top and bottom labels are assigned to stimuli during the detection of bilateral symmetry.
authors.affiliation: Behavioural Brain Sciences, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. j.hulleman@bham.ac.uk
authors.forename: Johan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hulleman
authors.forename: Glyn W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Humphreys
mesh_terms: D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D005260:Female; D005556:Form Perception; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time