Sj. Mckelvie et S. Aikins, WHY IS COIN HEAD ORIENTATION MISREMEMBERED - TESTS OF SCHEMA INTERFERENCE AND HANDEDNESS HYPOTHESES, British journal of psychology, 84, 1993, pp. 355-363
Three experiments were conducted to investigate memory for head direct
ion on Canadian coins. In Expt 1, 71 per cent of 125 subjects reported
wrongly that the Queen's head faces to their left, replicating previo
us claims of significant misremembering, and contradicting the specifi
c interference hypotheses' that, responses are guided by knowledge of
coins or postage stamps. In Expts 2 and with 100 and 126 subjects resp
ectively, a majority (59 per cent) of left-handers correctly identifie
d coin head orientation whereas a majority (62 per cent) of right-hand
ers were incorrect. However, the instruction to imagine the coin in th
e left or right hand had no effect on performance. Although it is sugg
ested that the handedness findings warrant further attention, it is co
ncluded that the data are generally consistent with the hypothesis tha
t subjects base their judgements of coin head direction on a memory sc
hema that favours heads facing left.