title: Reading direction causes spatial biases in mental model construction in language understanding.
abstract: Correlational evidence suggests that the experience of reading and writing in a certain direction is able to induce spatial biases at both low-level perceptuo-motor skills and high-level conceptual representations. However, in order to support a causal relationship, experimental evidence is required. In this study, we asked whether the direction of the script is a sufficiente cause of spatial biases in the mental models that understanders build when listening to language. In order to establish causality, we manipulated the experience of reading a script with different directionalities. Spanish monolinguals read either normal (left-to-right), mirror reversed (right-to-left), rotated downward (up-down), or rotated upward (down-up) texts, and then drew the contents of auditory descriptions such as "the square is between the cross and the triangle". The directionality of the drawings showed that a brief reading experience is enough to cause congruent and very specific spatial biases in mental model construction. However, there were also clear limits to this flexibility: there was a strong overall preference to arrange the models along the horizontal dimension. Spatial preferences when building mental models from language are the results of both short-term and long-term biases.
authors.affiliation: Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Román
authors.affiliation: Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Flumini
authors.affiliation: Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lizano
authors.affiliation: Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Marysol
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Escobar
authors.affiliation: Mind, Brain, and Behavior Research Center, University of Granada, Spain.
authors.forename: Julio
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Santiago
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D032882:Comprehension; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011932:Reading; D013037:Spatial Behavior; D055815:Young Adult