Space-valence compatibility in a touchscreen environment: the effect of hand and side

Experimental studies based on the body specificity hypothesis revealed associations between affective valence and hand dominance (i.e., dominant hand—positive; non-dominant hand-— negative), or lateral movements of the hands (i.e., dominant hand toward the ipsilateral space—positive; dominant hand toward the controlateral space—negative). Interestingly these associations have never been investigated in a response time paradigm with a swipe gesture. In two experiments we presented on a touchscreen device 16 images (previously valenced in a manipulation check experiment) to 24 right-handers (Exp. 1) and 24 left-handers participants (Exp.2), asking them to make valence judgments in both a congruent (swipe toward dominant space to positive images, vice versa for negative images) and incongruent (the opposite) task. Results highlighted that both right-handers and left-handers were faster (p<0.001) in the congruent condition in respect to the incongruent condition; this effect was only present in evaluations made with the dominant hand, supporting the idea that space valence associations (i.e., faster response time to positive or negative images) depend on the congruency between spatial position/direction of swipe and hand dominance.