Influence of body rotation on children's left–right confusion: A challenge to bilateral symmetry theory.

The hypothesis that left–right confusion in children is determined by correspondence to the bilateral symmetry of the nervous system was tested by presenting left–right and up–down discrimination-learning problems to 80 preschoolers (mean age?=?4.25 yrs) who viewed these stimuli from either an upright or 90°-rotated body position. The data clearly contradict predictions based on the anatomical model. Regardless of body position, left–right confusion was primarily determined by the left–right relationship of the stimulus to environmental coordinates rather than by its relationship to the bilateral symmetry of the body. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)