Neural activity related to eye movements has been proposed as a reason for superior recognition of words to the right of fixation. Predictions from such propositions were verified in our experiment. The distribution of recognition errors among letter positions on the left is relatively symmetrical, while the distribution on the right increases from fixation.

10-element binary patterns of open and blackened circles were tachistoscopically exposed such that 0–10 of the elements appeared on the left of a fixation-cross. The specific orientation relative to fixation was unknown to O before exposure. O was required to reproduce the pattern of blackened circles on a blank template after each exposure. In each of three experiments a different arrangement of the template for recording responses was used. The usual tendency for greater accuracy for elements at the left was overcome when more than half of the elements had appeared to the left of the fixation-point. The form of response recording affected the results, which were accounted for in terms of visual sensitivity, implicit motor factors, and organizational factors in the memory system of O.

In two experiments, eight-letter words and nonsense words, having the letters and the sequence of letters in normal or reversed orientations, were briefly exposed across fixation. Recognition of letters to the right and left of fixation was, on the whole, affected by directional attributes of the stimuli. These results are interpreted as providing evidence for functional factors in the scanning of visual patterns, as opposed to “structural” dominances in the nervous system.

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