Cultural Differences in Drawing Movements between Right-Handed Japanese and German Participants

Abstract

Differences in drawing movements with the dominant and nondominant hands by 41 right-handed students from Japan (9 men, 12 women; M age = 20.3 yr., SD = 1.4) and Germany (13 men, 7 women; M age = 23.4 yr., SD = 3.0) were investigated. Participants were asked to use each hand to draw a circle, a pentagon, and a rhombus in one stroke. Analysis showed that Japanese participants drew a circle clockwise with the dominant right hand, starting from 6 or 7 o'clock on the face of a clock, while the German participants drew the circle counterclockwise, starting from 11 or 12 o'clock. Moreover, when drawing a pentagon and a rhombus with the right hand, Japanese participants drew counterclockwise from the top-center vertex, whereas almost half of German participants drew clockwise from the left side and others drew counterclockwise from the top-center vertex. Using the left hand, no significant difference was found in starting positions or directionality. Cultural differences in the starting positions and directionality when using the dominant right hand probably reflect the influence of writing habits on the drawing movement of the dominant hand.

Response Priming with Horizontally and Vertically Moving Primes: A Comparison of German, Malaysian, and Japanese Subjects

“…As there were no large differences between the samples, the results cannot be explained by the role of training of the left-right versus updown orientation ( Rubichi et al, 2005 ; Taguchi, 2010 ). There are some other explanations that can explain differences between horizontal and vertical spatial compatibility effects, for example different neural mechanisms (e.g., Vallesi et al, 2005 ; Wiegand & Wascher, 2005 ) or differences in spatial coding (e.g., Rubichi et al, 2005 ; Rubichi et al, 2006 ).…”

“…Rubichi et al ( 2005 ) suggested that the distinction between left and right side is more needed in daily life and, therefore, highly trained, whereas the distinction between up and down is less important. Based on findings on the influence of learned reactions to Simon effects (e.g., Taguchi, 2010 ), Rubichi et al ( 2005 ) argued that the left/right prevalence is mainly driven by training. When looking at the IOR effect, there are also some findings for the influence of environmental regularities (e.g., Spalek & Hammad, 2005 ).…”

Contributions of the Left- and the Right-Hemisphere on the Language-Induced Grip Force Modulation of the Left Hand in Unimanual Task

“…In these cases, although "to write" and "to draw" are manual action verbs, they don't express a manual action performed by the left hand. The cortical activation when writing is leftlateralized and this lateralization is more evident in the frontal cortex [12,13]. Cortical activation is more symmetrical when drawing [12], with a more intense activation of right hemisphere regions related to language comparatively to writing [13].…”

“…The cortical activation when writing is leftlateralized and this lateralization is more evident in the frontal cortex [12,13]. Cortical activation is more symmetrical when drawing [12], with a more intense activation of right hemisphere regions related to language comparatively to writing [13]. Besides, there are verbs that express actions carried out with either hand, such as "hold" and "pull," whose central processing is also left-lateralized [14,15] and verbs that describe coordinated asymmetric bimanual activities such as "tie" and "drive", whose central processing is non-lateralized and more symmetrical [16][17][18].…”

Contributions of the Left and the Right Hemispheres on Language-Induced Grip Force Modulation of the Left Hand in Unimanual Tasks

“…In these cases, verbs such as “to write” and “to draw” do not express an action performed by the left hand. The cortical activation when writing is left-lateralized and this lateralization is more evident in the frontal cortex [15,16]. Cortical activation is more symmetrical when drawing [15], with a more intense activation of right hemisphere regions related to language when compared to writing [16].…”