Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom; Centre for Pain Research, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom.
Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom; Centre for Pain Research, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom; Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Acta Psychol (Amst). 2024 Mar;243:104115. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.104115. Epub 2024 Jan 15.
People have a leftward bias when making visuospatial judgements about horizontally arranged stimuli ("pseudoneglect"), and a superior bias when making visuospatial judgements about vertically arranged stimuli. The leftward visuospatial bias in physical space seems to extend to the mental representation of space. However, whether any bias exists in mental representation of vertical space is unknown. We investigated whether people show a visuospatial bias in the mental representation of vertical space, and if any bias in mental representations of horizontal and vertical space related to the extent of bias in physical space. Participants (n = 171) were presented with three numbers and asked which interval was smaller/larger (counterbalanced): the interval between the first and middle, or middle and last number. Participants were instructed to either think of the numbers as houses on a street or as floors of a building, or were given no imagery instructions. Participants in the houses on a street condition showed a leftward bias, but there was no superior bias in the floors of a building condition. In contrast, we replicated previous findings of leftward and superior bias on greyscales tasks. Our findings reinforce previous evidence that numbers are represented horizontally and ascending left to right by default.
人们在对水平排列的刺激物（“假性忽视”）进行视空间判断时存在左偏，而在对垂直排列的刺激物进行视空间判断时存在上偏。物理空间中的左视空间偏向似乎扩展到了空间的心理表征。然而，人们在垂直空间的心理表征中是否存在任何偏向尚不清楚。我们研究了人们在垂直空间的心理表征中是否存在视空间偏向，如果水平和垂直空间的任何偏向与物理空间的偏向程度有关。参与者（n=171）被呈现三个数字，并被要求判断哪个间隔更小/更大（平衡）：第一个和中间的数字之间的间隔，或者中间和最后一个数字之间的间隔。参与者被指示将数字想象成街道上的房屋或建筑物的楼层，或者没有进行想象指导。在房屋上的街道条件下的参与者表现出左偏，但在建筑物的楼层条件下没有上偏。相比之下，我们复制了之前在灰度任务中发现的左偏和上偏的发现。我们的研究结果加强了先前的证据，即数字默认水平排列，从左到右上升。
