Most crew station work I've done was on military aircraft, and for them the relevant spec is:
MIL-STD-203G, MILITARY STANDARD: AIRCREW STATION CONTROLS AND DISPLAYS: LOCATION, ARRANGEMENT AND ACTUATION OF, FOR FIXED WING AIRCRAFT
available at
http://everyspec.com/MIL-STD/MIL-STD-0100-0299/download.php?spec=MIL-STD-203G.009454.PDF
I think we can probably claim the RV-8 is a bit like a military aircraft. Certainly quite a few of them are painted that way. The relevant section is:
3.7 Control and switch actuation.
3.7.1 Position related. Direction of control movement or detent position
is in the direction of the resultant motion of the aircraft or associated
structural element being controlled.
3.7.2 Performance related. The direction of control movement that is:
(a) Forward, upward or clockwise. Forward, upward or clockwise,
resulting in increased performance of the component or aircraft. Conversely,
movement aftward, downward, or counterclockwise results in decreased
performance of the component or aircraft.
(1) For side console components. Outboard movement results in
increased performance and inboard movements results in decreased performance.
(b) Variable rotary. Clockwise from the “off” position through “low”
or "dim" to "high" or "bright" for controls of a variable nature induced by a
rotary motion. Operation counterclockwise shall reverse the induced condition.
As for housing electrical switches, when first I visited the USA I had lots of problems with the switches being reversed from "normal". In Australian houses, down=on.