Free viewing perceptual asymmetry for distance judgments: objects in right hemispace are closer than they appear

Abstract

Neurologically normal individuals demonstrate leftward biases in tasks of line bisection and judgments of brightness, numerosity, and size. Normals also report and demonstrate a right-sided bias when bumping into objects. Collectively, these results suggest that normals relatively neglect the right hemispace. The present experiment investigated the possibility that normals will also demonstrate leftward biases for judgments of distance. Participants viewed two equivalent but mirror-reversed three-dimensional shapes ("boxes" and "pyramids") of various orientations, sizes, and angles, making judgments about the perceived closeness of the stimuli. Significant leftward biases were exhibited for judgments of the closeness of boxes, but not for pyramids. The findings of the current study support the hypothesis that the normal tendency to bump into objects with the right side of one's body might be due to a perceptual asymmetry for distance judgments.