Abstract
Recent studies have shown that changes in visual processing in perihand space are limited to the area around the right hand, at least in right-handers. One explanation for these findings is that perception is altered at locations where action is more likely to occur. To test this notion, we asked both right- and left-handers to perform an unspeeded visual discrimination task under four hand-position configurations: Left hand, right hand, both hands, or no hands near the display. Compared to the no-hands (control) condition, visual sensitivity (d’) was higher in the dominant-hand condition for right-handers and higher in the dominant- as well as the non-dominant hand condition for left-handers. When both hands were near the display, sensitivity was similar to that in the dominant-hand condition for right-handers and to that in the non-dominant hand condition for left-handers. This shows that performance differed between the two handedness groups when their non-dominant hand was near the display (both alone and accompanied by their dominant hand). Thus, the pattern for left-handers did not correspond to a mirror image of the pattern for right-handers. In line with studies on bimanual action control, visual processing in perihand space seems to be determined by the different ways in which left- and right-handers use their hands.
Highlights
There is a growing body of evidence showing that visual processing is altered in perihand space
Reed, Grubb and Steele [1] asked participants to perform a covert visual orienting task [2] while holding one of their hands on one side of the visual display. They observed that target detection was faster for a target appearing on the same side as the hand than for a target appearing on the opposite side. To account for this effect, they proposed that the space near the hand benefits from a form of attentional prioritization that is supported by multimodal representations
Visual objects appearing near the hand benefit from bimodal representations that may influence the allocation of visual attention [1]
Summary
There is a growing body of evidence showing that visual processing is altered in perihand space. Reed, Grubb and Steele [1] asked participants to perform a covert visual orienting task [2] while holding one of their hands on one side of the visual display. They observed that target detection was faster for a target appearing on the same side as the hand than for a target appearing on the opposite side. To account for this effect, they proposed that the space near the hand benefits from a form of attentional prioritization that is supported by multimodal representations. Visual objects appearing near the hand benefit from bimodal representations that may influence the allocation of visual attention [1]
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