title: Hand position biases processing toward task irrelevant flankers.
abstract: An unresolved issue in describing the impact of hand position on visual processing is whether near hand perceptual differences occur automatically or in a strategic and task-dependent fashion. A number of recent studies have demonstrated that the area in the graspable space of the hands is processed differently, and often preferentially, compared with areas distant from the hands (Abrams, Davoli, Du, Knapp, & Paull, 2008; Gozli, West, & Pratt, 2012; Reed, Grubb, & Steele, 2006). However, it is unclear whether the near-hand bias is automatic, or because of a strategic prioritization of search at near-hand locations. In the current studies, we used a flanker task, which did not require search for the target, to differentiate between these 2 alternatives. The task included 1 critical distractor that was either in the graspable space of a hand or on the opposite side of the screen. This critical distractor was either congruent or incongruent with the correct response. Our results indicate an impact of distractor congruency only when the critical distractor was presented in near-hand space. The congruency of distractors opposite the hand had no impact on response times. Further, we find that the near-hand effect is dependent on the inclusion of congruent flankers. These findings demonstrate that the allocation of preferential processing is conditionally automatic when near-hand locations can contain beneficial information, and absent when these locations contain only interfering and neutral information. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Iowa.
authors.forename: William S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Bush
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Iowa.
authors.forename: Shaun P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Vecera
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult