Cognirrl~ Brain Research, 1 (1993) 219-222 219

0 1993 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. All rights reserved 0926.6410/93/$06.00

BRESC 30016

Influence of reading habits on line bisection

Sylvie Chokron *, Michel Imbert

Unit& Cerc>eau et Cognition (CNRS-VPMC), Centre d ‘Etudes des Processus Cognitifs et du Langage (EHESS), Vnir,ersitk Paul Sabatier,
Mkdecine Rangueil, 133 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse, France

(Accepted 21 September 1993)

Key words: Reading habit; Line bisection; Hemispheric activation; Neglect syndrome

The effect of scanning direction on perception of space is studied with a visuo-motor bisection task, among 120 normal dextrals with opposite
reading habits (60 French subjects, 60 Israeli subjects). Bisection is found to depend upon subject’s reading habits. Israeli bisected the line to the
right ~)f the objective centre, while French subjects placed their subjective middle to the left of the objective one. Results are discussed with
respect to hemispheric activation theories, directional hypotheses and the neglect syndrome.

INTRODUCTION the experimenter moves a pen along a line and the

subject verbally stops the movement at the point esti-
The use of bisection protocols with normal subjects mated to be the centre. Reuter-Lorenz and Posner
has demonstrated an asymmetric perception of space, found that the passive exploration from right to left
when the subject is asked to estimate the centre of entailed significantly greater deviations of the subjec-
a line6~‘5~‘6~22 or a rod5,h,9,20,21. Numerous au- tive midpoint to the right of the objective one than
thors3.5,9,15,20,21have described the tendency of normal when exploration was from left to right. In a recent
subjects to place the subjective middle to the left of the study, Halligan et al.” argued that bisecting a line is
objective centre. This phenomenon is known as dependent upon the ‘attentional’ direction of approach
pseudo-neglect3, because the direction of the deviation to the midpoint. They proposed that the presence of a
(to the left of the objective middle) is opposite to that leftwards or rightwards bias is determined by the direc-
presented by left unilateral neglect patients. Using the tion of the (internal) scanpath from one end of the line
same protocol, such subjects place the subjective mid- to the subjective centre.
dle to the right of the objective centre12. In the present research we aimed to study the effect
Certain authors have suggested’s5,’ that because of of reading habits on the position of the subjective
the spatial nature of the bisection task the pseudo-ne- middle during a visuo-motor task, using normal sub-
glect phenomenon, i.e. the left bias, could be related to jects. We used a visuo-motor bisection task to normal
a preferential activation of the right hemisphere. Ac- dextrals with opposite reading habits: French subjects
cording to this view, preferential activation of the right with left to right reading habits and Israelis who read
hemisphere effectively leads to an overestimation of from right to left.
the left hemispace and therefore to a displacement of If the hemispheric activation factors are preponder-
the subjective middle to the left of the objective mid- ant, there should be no difference between the Israeli
dle’. This account is a corollary of activation theory 13,14. and French subjects and the deviation should occur on
Reuter-Lorenz and Posner” studied the effect of the the left, because of the right hemisphere activation for
direction of visual exploration on the position of the the spatial nature of the bisection task.
subjective middle, using a passive visuo-motor bisection If the reading habits are preponderant, there should
task carried out by right-hemisphere damaged subjects: be a difference between French and Israeli subjects in

* Corresponding author. Current address: Groupe Regard, Laboratoire de Psychologie Experimentale, Universitt Paris V, 28 Rue Serpente,
75006 Paris, France.

SSDI 0926.6410(93)E0017-A
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the way they explore and bisect the line. We used three Procedure
The subjects were asked to mark indicating the middle of the line
age levels because of Israeli subjects who learn left to placed in front of them in a median position (the middle of the line
right languages as they grow old (music, mathematics, corresponding to the sagittal middle of the subject), using their right
foreign languages). Thereby, reading habits should be hand. The lines were presented in a random order according to their
length. The errors were noted to the nearest millimetre and carried a
stronger for younger subjects. ‘ + ’ if the deviation was to the right of the objective middle and a ‘ - ’
if the deviation was to the left of the objective middle. Whereas the
constant error in algebraic terms informed us as to an eventual
MATERIALS AND METHODS
orientation bias, the absolute one provided us the accuracy of the
subject. Furthermore, the results were also analysed in terms of
Subjects frequency to deviate on the right or on the left of the objective
120 normal right-handed subjects: 60 French (30 men, 30 women), centre. A leftwards bisection was coded - 1, a rightwards one+ 1,
and 60 Israelis (30 men, 30 women). The subjects were recruited and a nil deviation was coded 0.
according three age groups: (i) Israeli subjects average age 14 years 5
months (between 14 years 1 month and 15 years 1 month). French
subjects average age 14 years 3 months (between 13 years 9 months
and IS years 2 months); (ii) Israeli subjects average age 17 years 1 RESULTS
month (between 16 years 1 month and 17 years 6 months). French
subjects average age 17 years 3 months (between 16 years 2 months
and 17 years 7 months); (iii) Israeli adult subjects average age 26
years 3 months (between 22 years 9 months and 40 years 6 months) Israeli subjects
and French adult subjects average age 25 years 4 months (between
We noted that Israeli subjects show a significant
21 years 8 months and 44 years 3 months).
In all cases the subjects were taken in the same school level. All deviation to the right of the objective centre (+ 0.13
the subjects were at least 90% right-handed and their laterality was
cm, t,, - 5.26, P < 0.005). The Anova conducted on
established using the Bryden testa. French and hebrew were, respec-
tively, the native language of French and Israeli subjects, and their
Sex x Age x Length reveals that the length of the line
only tluent one. has a statistically significant effect on the position of
the subjective middle. Table I shows that whatever the
Stimuli length of the line, the subject places the subjective
18 black lines drawn on white paper 29.7 cm by 21.0 cm. 6 lines of
each: 5 cm, 15 cm or 20 cm in length and centred on the sheet of middle significantly to the right of the objective middle
paper. but this deviation to the right increases with the length

TABLE I
Experiment I

Israeli n = 60 French n = 60
Constant errors (cm)
Average deviation +0.13 S.D. = 0.19 - 0.06 S.D. = 0.16
Effect of reading habits F , 1o8
= 36.59 P < 0.000001
Line length
5 cm + 0.06 S.D. = 0.09 - 0.02 S.D. = 0.08
15 cm + 0.17 S.D. = 0.24 - 0.05 SD. = 0.21
20 cm +0.18 S.D. = 0.22 - 0.10 SD. = 0.24
Anova F 2,,08 = 8.81 P < 0.005 F 2.,08 = 5.20 P < 0.05

Absolute errors (cm)

Average deviation 0.19 S.D. = 0.11 0.14 S.D. = 0.10
Effect of reading habits F, ,,,x= 12.53 P < 0.005
Line length
5 cm 0.08 S.D. = 0.07 0.07 S.D. = 0.07
15 cm 0.22 S.D. = 0.21 0.16 S.D. = 0.15
20 cm 0.28 S.D. = 0.24 0.20 S.D. = 0.17
Anova F 2,,08 = 30.00 P < 0.0000001 F 2.,,,8 = 28.08 P < 0.0000001

Frequency of the deviation

( - 1: leftwards deviation,
+ 1: rightwards deviation)
Average deviation + 0.49 S.D. = 0.65 - 0.24 S.D. = 0.64
Effect of reading habits F 1,08= 36.95 P < 0.000001

Line length
5 cm + 0.50 S.D. = 0.82 - 0.13 S.D. = 0.74
15 cm +0.58 S.D. = 0.80 - 0.23 S.D. = 0.88
20 cm +0.53 S.D. = 0.89 - 0.35 SD. = 0.83
Anova F 2,108= 1.09 ns F 2 108= 2.64 ns
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of the line. The effect of the length on the bisection is DISCUSSION

more noticeable by the significant difference between
the 5 cm line and the 15 cm and 20 cm lines. The most important result to be considered is the
The analysis of the absolute error confirms the direction of deviation of the subjective middle which
significance of the error committed by the subjects differs according to the reading habits of the subject.
(0.19 cm, t,, = 12.36, P < 0.005). There is an effect of Israeli subjects show a significant deviation to the right
the length of the line on the accuracy of the subject of the objective middle whereas French subjects place
(Table I). Neither age nor sex was found to have an the middle markedly tq the left of the objective middle.
effect on either constant errors or on absolute ones. The leftwards bias in line bisection described in the
Results analysed in terms of frequency to deviate to literature among normal dextrals had often been linked
the lsft or to the right of the objective middle show a to the overactivation of the right hemisphere in re-
tendency of subjects to bisect the line in the right sponse to the spatial nature of the task”,‘. In other
hemispace, with no effect of the length line on this words, the deviation is assumed to occur in the hemis-
tendency (Table I). pace controlateral to the most activated hemi-
sphere13114.
If these results were to be explained in terms of
French subjects hemispheric activation, i.e. if we consider that the
In contrast to Israelis, French subjects were found subjects place the subjective middle in the half of the
to place the subjective middle significantly to the left of line contralateral to the most activated hemisphere, the
the objective one (-0.06 cm, t,, = 2.79, P < 0.01). The results would point out that the hemispheric lateraliza-
analysis of variance conducted on Sex X Age X Length tion of the subjects reading from right to left is com-
reveals a statistically significant effect of the length of pletely symmetric to that of the subjects reading from
line (Table I). Although the three lengths of line pro- left to right. Most researchs on the influence of reading
duce a deviation of the subjective middle to the left of direction on hemispheric activation2.4s’7 (generally us-
the objective middle, the deviation increases with the ing lexical decision paradigms), has tended to show a
length of the line and only becomes significant for the similar cerebral organisation between the subjects de-
20 cm line (0.10 cm, t,, = 3.17, P < 0.005). In terms of spite their reading habits.
absolute accuracy the French subjects produce a signif- Rather than talking in terms of hemispheric differ-
icant error (0.14 cm, t,, = 10.42, P < 0.005). It was ence, Pollatsek et al.‘” insist on the fact that reading
noted that the length of the line was again important habits may be crucial to the distribution of attention
(Table I), the accuracy of the bisection depends upon because of the scanning direction. Since Israeli and
the length of the line, in that although the deviation is French subjects exhibit here opposite patterns, we
significant whatever the length of line, it increases agree with Pollatsek et al. and prefer the hypothesis of
together with the length of the line. No age or sex an opposite visual direction effect rather than thinking
effecrs were found on either constant errors or on in terms of an opposite cerebral dominance accross
absolute ones. Results analysed in terms of frequency subjects, according to their reading habits.
to deviate leftwards or rightward underlined the left- Because of this, the only apparent difference be-
wards bisection of French subjects (Table I). tween French and Israeli subjects for our visuo-motor
bisection task is the direction of the visual scanning:
from left to right or from right to left. Therefore during
Comparison between Israeli and French subjects a line bisection task, the deviation of the subjective
middle would be dependent upon the direction of the
The effect of reading habits on the bisection is visual exploration of the line. This hypothesis would
significant (Table I), with a rightwards bisection for conform with Abed’, who showed that exploration of
right to left readers and a leftwards one for left to right non-directional stimuli could be influenced by reading
readers. In terms of absolute errors, there is also an habits and be explored in the same way as directional
effect of reading habits on precision with a smaller stimuli such as words. Our research underlines the
deviation for left to right readers than for right to left influence of the direction of visual exploration during a
ones (Table I). But when results are analysed in terms visuo-motor bisection task, but with normal dextrals.
of the frequency of the deviation to the left or to the In a recent studylO using a passive line bisection
right, abolishing the error amplitude, the effect of task, we imposed a scanning direction (from left to
reading habits on the sense of deviation is still signifi- right or from right to left) on 30 French normal dex-
cant (Table I). trals, and 1 unilateral neglect patient. We were able to
222

show that scanning direction influences line bisection nerod (Ed.), Neuropsychological and Neurophysiological Aspects oj
Spatial Neglect, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1987, pp. 41-67.
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9 Chokron, S. and Imbert, M.. Egocentric reference and asymmet-
direction, for all subjects.
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These findings confirm that scanning direction and 10 Chokron, S., Perenin, M.T., Rode, G. and Imbert, M., Scanning
moreover reading habits may play a role in space direction and line bisection, Perception, Suppl. 22 (1993) 120.
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