Why are infants held on the left? A test of the attention hypothesis with a doll, a book, and a bag.
Most adults, especially women, hold infants and objects representing infants, such as dolls, preferentially on the left side. The attention hypothesis credits the effect to left-directed attention for perception of emotionally salient targets, faces being prime examples. Support comes from studies showing stronger left visual hemispace (LVH) biases in left-holders than right-holders on the Chimeric Faces Test (CFT), but control tests with non-social/emotional objects are needed. We therefore observed young women holding a doll, a book, and a bag, and compared their scores with their performance on the CFT. We also assessed their handedness to check on its possible role. Overall, only the doll elicited a significant side bias, with 57% of all holds on the left, 2% in the middle, and 41% on the right. On the CFT, only left-holders had an LVH bias, whereas right-holders had no bias in either direction. Only the doll-hold scores were consistently related to CFT scores, and for none of the objects was handedness related to side-of-hold.
Harris
Lauren Julius
LJ
Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA. HARRISL@msu.edu
Cárdenas
Rodrigo Andrés
RA
Spradlin
Michael P
MP
Almerigi
Jason B
JB
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D014794:Visual Fields / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult