Different Dimensions of Hand Preference That Relate to Skilled and Unskilled Activities

Steenhuis, Runa E.; Bryden, M.P.

doi:10.1016/s0010-9452(89)80044-9

Cited by 378 publications

(254 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Specifically, the tube and ball tasks significantly correlated with each other, but neither of these measures correlated with the remaining four measures, which all significantly correlated with each other. These findings are similar to findings using factor analysis of human handedness measures (Annett, 1985;Healey, Liederman, & Geschwind, 1986;Porac & Coren, 1981;Steenhuis & Bryden, 1989) and are consistent with the hypothesis that handedness is not unidimensional and that different measures of hand preference may involve different motor or neural systems. For example, Healey et al (1986) had participants fill out a 52-item questionnaire in which they indicated their hand use on a 5-point Likert-type scale as 1 (right always), 2 (right preferred but sometimes use left), 3 (no preference), 4 (left preferred but sometimes use right), or 5 (left always).…”

supporting

confidence: 89%

Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) handedness: Variability across multiple measures of hand use.

Hopkins¹,

Pearson²

2000

Journal of Comparative Psychology

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This study examined intertask consistency in handedness across multiple measures of hand use in a sample of 187 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Hand preferences for 2 to 6 measures were collected from the sample, and hand preference scores were derived on the basis of the individual hand preferences for each measure. Seven of 15 possible intratask correlations were significant, with some degree of clustering depending on the motor demands of the tasks. Two overall measures of handedness revealed population-level right-handedness in the chimpanzees, although the degree of bias was reduced for chimpanzees tested on more than 3 measures of hand use. The results are interpreted in the context of several recent studies that proposed theoretical models of handedness in nonhuman primates.Approximately 90% of humans report themselves as being right-handed (Annett, 1985;Porac & Coren, 1981). The historical view has been that nonhuman animals, particularly nonhuman primates, do not exhibit population-level handedness (see Ettlinger, 1988;Lehman, 1993;Warren, 1980). In recent years, behavioral research in a variety of nonhuman primate species using a multitude of tasks has revealed that population-level handedness can be found in some species for certain measures (Bradshaw & Rogers, 1993;Hopkins, 1996;Ward & Hopkins, 1993). In addition to handedness, evidence of perceptual and cognitive asymmetries in a host of animal species has been reported (Bisazza, Rogers, & Vallortigara, 1998;Bradshaw & Rogers, 1993). These cumulative data clearly challenge the historical view purporting the uniqueness of hemispheric specialization to humans.With the emergence of evidence of hemispheric specialization and handedness in animals, a fundamental question has arisen: Is the manifestation of handedness in animals the same as in humans? Corballis (1992) has suggested that nonhuman primate handedness reflects a "weaker" form of handedness than is evident in humans. Roney and King (1993) have made a similar argument with respect tO differences between human and nonhuman primate handedness. More recently, Marchant (1994,1997) have dichotomized laterality of hand functions on the basis of consistency in use within and between subjects and tasks. Specifically, according to McGrew and Marchant (1997), hand preference refers to within-task and within-subject variability in hand preference. Task specialization refers to situations in which most individuals within a sample show the same hand preference for one and only one measure. Manual specialization refers to circumstances in which the same individual uses the same hand across task, but all individuals within that sample show inconsistent preferences. Finally, true handedness reflects consistent hand use across all measures and individuals in a sample. McGrew and Marchant 1997) argued that most studies in nonhuman primates have failed to meet their definition of true handedness, and most fall into the categories of either Byrne & Byrne, 1991;Diamond & McGrew, 1994). Thus, according to...

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supporting

confidence: 89%

Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) handedness: Variability across multiple measures of hand use.

Hopkins¹,

Pearson²

2000

Journal of Comparative Psychology

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“…Several other studies have attempted to address this issue by investigating tasks of different complexity. Higher task complexity is expected to require a larger area of workspace covered by the dominant hand but some findings are inconsistent (Steenhuis & Bryden, 1989;Bryden, Pryde, & Roy, 1999). At present, the exact relationship between hand preference and hand dominance is unclear (see especially Guiard, 1988Guiard, , 1990.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result, the manual asymmetry observed in the population of left-handers is not simply a mirror reversal of the pattern shown by the righthanders (e.g., Peters, 1990). These distributional characteristics of the hypothesised handedness continuum might cause difficulties in interpreting correlations obtained with left-and right-handers together (see also Steenhuis, 1996).…”

Section: Hand Preference Analysesmentioning

confidence: 97%

A kinematic analysis of hand selection in a reaching task

Stins¹,

Kádár²,

Costall³

2001

Laterality

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“…Some of the participants were level 1 undergraduates and received course credit for their participation. Participants' handedness was assessed using a 15-item abbreviated version of the Waterloo Handedness Questionnaire (WHQ; Steenhuis & Bryden, 1989, scores can range from -30 to +30). Sighting dominance was assessed using a variant the Miles A-B-C test (Miles, 1929), which requires aligning a distant target with a slot produced by two hand held cards at arms' length.…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

One hand or the other? Effector selection biases in right and left handers

Main

Carey

2014

Neuropsychologia

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Much debate in the handedness literature has centred on the relative merits of questionnaire-based measures assessing hand preference versus simple movement tasks such as peg moving or finger tapping, assessing hand performance. A third paradigm has grown in popularity, which assesses choices by participants when either hand could be used to execute movements. These newer measures may be useful in predicting possible "reversed" asymmetries in proportions of non-right handed ("adextral") people. In the current studies we examine hand choice in large samples of dextral (right handed) and adextral participants. Unlike in some previous experiments on choice, we found that left handers were as biased towards their dominant hand as were right handers, for grasping during a puzzle-making task (study 1). In a second study, participants had to point to either of two suddenly appearing targets with one hand or the other. In study 2, left handers were not significantly less one handed than their right-handed counterparts as in study 1. In a final study, we used random effects meta analysis to summarise the possible differences in hand choice between left handers and right handers across all hand choice studies published to date. The meta analysis suggests that right handers use their dominant hand 12.5% more than left handers favour their dominant hand (with 95% confidence that the real difference lies between 7 and 18%). These last results suggests that our two experiments reported here may represent statistical Type 2 errors. This mean difference may be related to greater left hemispheric language and praxic laterality in right handers. Nevertheless, more data are needed regarding the precise proportions of left and right handers who favour their preferred hands for different tasks.

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Different Dimensions of Hand Preference That Relate to Skilled and Unskilled Activities

Cited by 378 publications

References 13 publications

Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) handedness: Variability across multiple measures of hand use.

Chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) handedness: Variability across multiple measures of hand use.

A kinematic analysis of hand selection in a reaching task

One hand or the other? Effector selection biases in right and left handers

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