READING HABITS AND LINE BISECTION - A DEVELOPMENTAL-APPROACH

120 normal right-handed subjects, children and adults, with opposite r eading habits (60 French, left-to-right readers, 60 Israeli, right-to- left readers) and 60 pre-school children (30 French and 30 Israeli), w ere submitted to a visuo-motor bisection task. Bisection is found to b e dependent upon reading habits with a leftward deviation of the subje ctive middle for left-to-right readers, and a rightward bias for right -to-left readers. Even before formal reading learning, French and Isra eli pre-school children differ significantly in bisecting a line. Resu lts are discussed with respect to hemispheric activation theories and directional hypotheses.