Comprehending compass directions |
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Authors: | Geoffrey R. Loftus |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychology, University of Washington, 98195, Seattle, Washington
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Abstract: | Two experiments investigated the processes by which compass directions are comprehended. In both experiments, the task was as follows. A compass direction (e.g., 210 deg) was visually presented. The subject drew a representation of the direction and then pressed a key. Reaction time from onset of the stimulus to the keypress was measured. The results suggested a model of direction comprehension involving two steps: first, computing the nearest cardinal direction to the target direction, and then “rotating” from the cardinal to the target direction. Rotation could be performed equally well clockwise or counterclockwise. Additionally, north-south. tended to be comprehended faster than east-west, confirming past results that have shown an advantage of up-down over left-right in discrimination tasks. |
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