The Laterality of Everday Life

我们的日常行为深受功能和解剖大脑侧化的影响。像用手习惯这样的运动偏好已经得到了非常详细的研究，但是我们对空间偏好的了解要少得多。本提案中描述的研究计划将调查这些偏见的程度和潜在原因，通常在实验室之外的自然环境中检查人类行为。该提案详细介绍了三个（有时重叠）研究流：（A）侧化空间注意，（B）光源感知偏差，（C）驾驶时的空间偏差。 (A)人们在空间注意力方面表现出非常强烈和可靠的双侧偏误。这些偏差的原因尚不清楚。这可能是因为人们倾向于从左到右扫描物体（比如阅读英语），或者因为人们更关注空间的左侧。在实验室外，当人们在行走时与静止物体相撞时，他们往往会用身体的右侧来做这件事。这表明人们低估了物体向右的接近程度。这项研究试图确定这些偏见存在的条件。 (B)人们倾向于优先构建和显示从左侧照亮的图像。这种效果在美术馆中很容易观察到，其中66%-75%的图像将显示向左的照明偏差。这种效应也可以在杂志广告、业余摄影和严格控制条件下的实验室任务中观察到。目前还不清楚为什么人们喜欢这种照明安排，但这可能与右半球对空间注意力的主导地位有关。或者，这些偏见可能是由母语阅读方向造成的，我将通过包括第一语言从右向左阅读的人来测试这一点（例如，从左到右阅读）。乌尔都语、波斯语）。 (C)我目前正在协调加拿大自然驾驶研究的数据收集，这是一项为期两年的125名司机的研究。我们安装了数据采集系统（DAS），可在真实驾驶行为期间提供连续的多摄像头视频记录、雷达和GPS数据。我建议对其中一些数据进行编码和分析，以了解在判断其他车辆和静止物体的接近程度时的横向偏差，以及这些偏差是否与其他因素（如与乘客的对话，手机通话，短信）相互作用。具体来说，我预测驾驶员会表现出对距离判断的过度偏见，高估了物体和车辆的接近程度，导致右侧碰撞的可能性更大。我还预测，向左接近的危险（如行人，骑自行车的人）的制动时间将短于类似的事件，从危险。

Our everyday behaviours are profoundly influenced by functional and anatomical brain lateralization. Motor biases such as handedness have been studied in great detail, but our spatial biases are much less well understood. The program of research described in this proposal will survey the extent and potential causes of these biases, often examining human behavior in a naturalistic context, outside of the laboratory. This proposal details three (sometimes overlapping) streams of research: (A) Lateralized Spatial Attention, (B) Biases in Perception of Light Source, & (C) Spatial Biases while Driving. (A) People exhibit very strong and reliable leftward lateral biases in spatial attention. The cause of these biases is unknown. It could be because people tend to scan objects from the left to the right (like reading English), or because people pay more attention to the left side of space. Outside of the laboratory, when people collide with stationary objects while walking, they tend to do so with the right side of their body. This suggests that individuals underestimate the proximity of objects to the right. The research proposed is an attempt to determine the conditions under which these biases exist.  (B) People tend to preferentially construct and display images that are lit from the left. This effect is readily observable in an art gallery, where 66%-75% of the images will show a lighting bias towards the left. This effect is also observable in magazine advertisements, amateur photographs, and laboratory tasks under carefully controlled conditions. It is currently unknown why people prefer this lighting arrangement, but it could be related to the right hemisphere’s dominance for spatial attention. Alternately, these biases could be caused by native reading direction, and I will test this by including people whose first language reads from right to left (eg. Urdu, Farsi). (C) I am currently coordinating data collection for the Canadian Naturalistic Driving Study, a 2-year study of 125 drivers. We have installed a Data Acquisition System (DAS) that provides continuous multi–camera video recording, radar, and GPS data during real-world driving behavior. I am proposing that some of this data be coded and analyzed for lateral biases in judgments of proximity of other vehicles and stationary objects, and whether these biases interact with other factors (such as conversation with passengers, cell-phone calls, texting). Specifically, I am predicting that drivers will exhibit leftward biases for distance judgments, overestimating the proximity of leftward objects and vehicles, leading to a greater chance of right-side collisions. I also predict that braking latencies for leftward-approaching hazards (such as pedestrians, cyclists) will be shorter than comparable events from rightward hazards.