Spatial bias in figure placement in representational drawing: Associations with handedness and script directionality

ABSTRACT

Spatial biases in graphomotor production tasks such as figure drawing may reflect biological (cerebral lateralization), biomechanical (limb movement), and/or cultural (reading/writing direction) influences. The present study examined sources of bias in the placement in graphic space of a symmetrical drawn figure (a tree). A previous study using a child sample found an overall leftward placement bias, independent of participants’ reading/writing direction experience [Picard & Zarhbouch, 2014. Leftward spatial bias in children's drawing placement: Hemispheric activation versus directional hypotheses. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, 19(1), 96–112]; moreover, the left-side bias was greater in right handers. Using an adult sample, the present study also found an overall left placement bias. This effect was significantly greater in right-handed than left-handed participants. Importantly, a left placement bias was significantly greater in left-to-right readers (English) than in participants whose first learned language was from right-to-left (Urdu, Arabic or Farsi). The fact that script directionality is associated with figure placement in our study but not in the previous study suggests that a certain threshold of experience in reading/writing in a given direction may be needed for scanning biases to exert a demonstrable effect on representational drawing. These findings suggest that biomechanical and cultural factors offer a more parsimonious account of spatial biases in drawing.

KEYWORDS:

• Spatial bias
• handedness
• script directionality
• figure placement
• directional tendencies

Acknowledgements

We appreciate the contribution of Paige Dusthimer and Sara Ghaemifard in data collection and coding. A preliminary version of this study was presented at the 58th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, in Vancouver, Canada.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 As there were unequal sample sizes and no significant interaction between the main factors, Type II sum of squares was used whenever ANOVA analyzes was conducted to gain more statistical power (Langsrud, 2003).

2 The independent samples t-test using Picard and Zarhbouch’s (2014) coding method yielded the same result. That is, the leftward placement was significantly greater in left-to-right (Mean_{leftward_bias} = −4.59 mm, SD = 5.15) than right-to-left readers (Mean_{leftward_bias} = −1.62 mm, _SD = 5.93), t(130) = −3.082, p = 0.003, d = −0.54.