Directional tendencies of Hebrew, Japanese, and English readers

Consistent left-right and right-left reading habits are associated with corresponding directional tendencies in the reproduction of horizontally displayed visual stimuli. Inconsistent reading habits should therefore be associated with inconsistent directional tendencies. This hypothesis was tested on Japanese readers whose reading habits were inconsistent by asking them to reproduce four series of 12-item horizontal stimulus arrays. The hypothesis was partially supported by the data which showed that, like Hebrew readers who also have inconsistent reading habits, the directional tendencies shown by the 68 Japanese readers were significantly weaker on some tasks that those shown by the 16 English readers whose left-right reading habits were consistent. The data were interpreted as showing that acquired reading habits may affect directionality in perception of visual stimuli.