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Anatomical Positions

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In anatomy, several standard anatomical positions are used as references for describing the position and orientation of different body parts. These positions help provide a common frame of reference when discussing anatomical structures. The anatomical position is the standard reference point for describing the body's position and orientation. In this position:
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Directional Terms

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Vision

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Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior

Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior

Published on: November 14, 2018

Head up, foot down: object words orient attention to the objects' typical location.

Zachary Estes¹, Michelle Verges, Lawrence W Barsalou

¹Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom. z.estes@warwick.ac.uk

Psychological Science

|February 15, 2008

Summary

Object words like "head" or "foot" can guide your attention to specific locations. This study shows that these words interfere with visual tasks in their typical spatial areas, demonstrating language

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Last Updated: Jul 7, 2026

Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior

Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior

Published on: November 14, 2018

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects

Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects

Published on: November 30, 2018

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Psycholinguistics
Neuroscience

Background:

Object words are known to activate perceptual simulations.
Spatial associations are often encoded within object words.
Understanding how language influences spatial attention is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if object words orient attention to their typical locations.
To determine if language-based spatial associations affect visual perception.
To explore the link between semantic meaning and spatial processing.

Main Methods:

Three experiments were conducted using visual target identification tasks.
Participants were presented with object words (e.g., head, foot) followed by visual targets.
Target locations were varied (top or bottom of the display) relative to object typicality.

Main Results:

Words for high-typicality objects (e.g., head) impaired target identification at the top.
Words for low-typicality objects (e.g., foot) impaired target identification at the bottom.
This interference indicates attention was directed to the object's typical location.

Conclusions:

Object words effectively orient spatial attention towards their typical locations.
Language processing can directly influence and modulate visual perception.
Perceptual simulations activated by object words play a role in spatial attention.