Author: Fumio Kanbe

Title: Is handedness information critical for discriminating figure pairs?

Journal: Symmetry 2019, 11, 624

doi: 10.3390/sym11050624

URL: www.mdpi.com/journal/symmetry

Abstract: Mirror-reflected or axisymmetric (Ax) pairs of figures are known to be difficult to discriminate. If non-identical pairs of figures with specific feature values impede discrimination to the same extent as the discrimination of Ax pairs, the feature values concerned would be expected to cause discrimination difficulty and may be critical for figure recognition in general. In the present study, we examined whether handedness information (i.e., the left or right side of a disoriented figure) is critical for the discrimination of figure pairs with pairs of complex figures (Experiment 1) and simpler figures (Experiment 2). Participants performed a task requiring discrimination of whether the figures in a pair had the same shape regardless of orientation. Three basic pair types were prepared: identically shaped pairs, Ax pairs, and non-identical, non-axisymmetric (Nd) pairs. Non-axisymmetric pairs were further classified into same-handedness pairs and opposite-handedness pairs. The results revealed that discrimination latencies were longer for Ax pairs than for both same-handedness pairs and opposite-handedness pairs. These findings suggest that handedness information is not a critical feature in figure recognition.

Keywords: figure recognition; graph isomorphism; axisymmetry; handedness

Email: kanbe[at]fc.hakuoh.ac.jp([at] を@に置き換えてください）

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