Leftward biases in picture scanning and line bisection: A gaze-contingent window study

A bias for humans to attend to the left side of space has been reported in a variety of experiments. While patients with hemispatial neglect mistakenly bisect horizontal lines to the right of centre, neurologically healthy individuals show a mean leftward error. Here, two experiments demonstrated a robust tendency for participants to saccade to the left when viewing photographs. We were able to manipulate this bias by using an asymmetrical gaze-contingent window, which revealed more of the scene on one side of fixation—causing participants to saccade more often in that direction. A second experiment demonstrated the same change in eye movements occurring rapidly from trial to trial, and investigated whether it would carry over and effect attention during a line bisection task. There was some carry-over from gaze-contingent scene viewing to the eye movements during line bisection. However, despite frequent initial eye movements and many errors to the left, manual responses were not affected by this change in orienting. We conclude that the mechanisms underlying asymmetrical attention in picture scanning and line bisection are flexible and can be separated, with saccades in scene perception driven more by a skewed perceptual span.

► Observers tend to make their first saccade to the left of an image. ► This can be manipulated by imposing a gaze-contingent window. ► Observers saccade in the direction of the window. ► This may affect subsequent saccades, but not manual line bisection. ► These results have implications for active vision and hemispatial neglect.