Up-and-left as a spatial cue of leadership.

Cues of leadership are features that signal who is (or who is expected to be) the leader in a specific context. Although their use is widespread, empirical research is scarce, especially for spatial positioning as a sign of leadership. Based on work on spatial biases, we suggest here that the upper-left corner of a page is a spatial position associated with leadership.

Objects, numbers, fingers, space: clustering of ventral and dorsal functions in young children and adults.

In the primate brain, sensory information is processed along two partially segregated cortical streams: the ventral stream, mainly coding for objects' shape and identity, and the dorsal stream, mainly coding for objects' quantitative information (including size, number, and spatial position). Neurophysiological measures indicate that such functional segregation is present early on in infancy, and that the two streams follow independent maturational trajectories during childhood. Here we collected, in a large sample of young children and adults, behavioural measures on an extensive set of functions typically associated with either the dorsal or the ventral stream.

Unconventional vertical word-order impairs reading.

Western written languages unfold across both the horizontal (from left to right) and the vertical (from top to bottom) dimensions. Culturally determined horizontal reading/writing habits are so pervasive that their influence can be found not only in visual scanning but also in performance across different domains and tasks. However, little is known on the effects of vertical word order.

Association between objects and body parts mediated by function.

Recent accounts of conceptual knowledge suggest that the specific gestures/actions that should be performed in order to use an object for its intended function are an integral part of its mental representation. If this is true, then the information regarding which body part needs activating to interact with the object should also be part of such representation. Starting from the assumption that not only artefacts (i.

A kinematic approach to the conceptual representations of this and that.

The Italian demonstrative pronouns questo/a ('this([mas/fem])') and quello/a ('that([mas/fem])') implicitly convey information about objects' distance with respect to the speaker. Our study investigated the referents of questo/a ('this([mas/fem])') and quello/a ('that([mas/fem])') by analysing their influence on reach-to-grasp actions towards objects located near to (12cm) or far from (30cm) the participant. Upon acoustic instruction containing one or the other pronoun, participants had to reach for and grasp a target object.

Spatial coding and central patterns: is there something special about the eyes?

In this study we investigated in a Simon-like task whether task-irrelevant spatial information, delivered by centrally presented patterns, interfered with response selection in the same way as laterally presented stimuli. Second, we asked whether such interference was equal for different kinds of stimuli. Participants were required to respond to the colour of two framed squares, two arrows, or two schematic eyes by pressing one of two lateralized response keys.

Are visual stimuli sufficient to evoke motor information? Studies with hand primes.

In two experiments we assessed whether seeing objects automatically activates information regarding how to manipulate them. In Experiment 1 participants categorized photographs of objects that could be manipulated either with a power or a precision grip into artefacts or natural kinds. Target-objects were preceded by primes consisting of photographs of hands in grasping postures (precision or power grip).

Differential effects of cast shadows on perception and action.

In two experiments we investigated the effects of cast shadows on different real-life tasks. In experiment 1, participants were required to make a speeded verbal identification of the target object (perceptual task), whereas in experiment 2 participants were required to reach for and grasp the target object (motor task). In both experiments real three-dimensional (3-D) objects were presented, one at a time, either with their own natural cast shadow (congruent condition) or with the cast shadow of a different object (incongruent condition).

Attentional functions of parietal and frontal cortex.

A model of normal attentional function, based on the concept of competitive parallel processing, is used to compare attentional deficits following parietal and frontal lobe lesions. Measurements are obtained for visual processing speed, capacity of visual short-term memory (VSTM), spatial bias (bias to left or right hemifield) and top-down control (selective attention based on task relevance). The results show important differences, but also surprising similarities, in parietal and frontal lobe patients.