Writing with non-dominant hand: left-handers perform better with the right hand than right handers with the left

Kristina Laskowski; Maciej Henneberg

doi:10.2478/v10044-012-0012-4

Authors

Kristina Laskowski Biological Anthropology and Comparative Anatomy Unit, School of Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Australia
Maciej Henneberg Biological Anthropology and Comparative Anatomy Unit, School of Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2478/v10044-012-0012-4

Keywords:

handedness, males, females, re-training, Edinburgh Questionnaire

Abstract

Adult volunteers (7 females, 7 males) aged between 19 and 51 years, 7 right-handers and 7 left-handers, were asked to complete re-training writing tasks by using their non-dominant hand over 10 consecutive days. It is possible for adults to learn quickly to write legibly with their non-dominant hand. Left handers have a higher legibility score initially although right-handers improved with training more than left-handers. Individual’s performance was unrelated to age and sex in the small sample studied.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Annett M. 2004. Hand preference observed in large healthy samples: Classification, norms and interpretations of increased non-right-handedness by the right shift theory. Br J Psychol 95:339–53.
View in Google Scholar

Bryden PJ, Roy EA. 2005. Unimanuel performance across the age span. Brain Cogn 57:26–29.
View in Google Scholar

Büsch D, Hagemann N, Bender N. 2010. The dimensionality of the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory: An analysis with models of the item response theory. Laterality 15(6):610–28.
View in Google Scholar

Chapman JA, Henneberg M. 1999. Switching the handedness of adults: results of 10 weeks training of the non-dominant hand, Perspectives in Human Biology 4(1):211–17.
View in Google Scholar

Doyen A-L, Dufour T, Caroff X, Cherfouh A, Carlier M. 2008. Hand preference and hand performance: Cross-sectional developmental trends and family resemblance in degree of laterality. Laterality 13(2):179–97.
View in Google Scholar

Gonzalez CL, Ganel T, Goodale MA. 2006. Hemispheric specialization for the visual control of action is independent of handedness. J Neurophysiol 95:3496–501. doi: 10.1152/jn.01187.2005
View in Google Scholar

Kalisch T, Wilimzig C, Kleibel N, Tegenthoff M, and Dinse HR. 2006. Age-Related Attenuation of Dominant Hand Superiority. PLoS ONE 1(1):e90. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.000009
View in Google Scholar

Kim Yong-Kyu. 2009. Handbook of behavior genetics. New York: Springer Science and Business Media.
View in Google Scholar

Klöppel S, Vongerichten A, van Eimeren T, Frackowiak RSJ, Siebner HR. 2007. Can left-landedness be switched? Insights from an early switch of handwriting. J Neurosci 27(29):7847–53.
View in Google Scholar

Króliczak G, Piper BJ, Frey SH. 2011. Atypical lateralization of language predicts cerebral asymmetries in parietal gesture representations. Neuropsychologia 49:1698–702.
View in Google Scholar

Teixeira LA. 2000. Categories of manual asymmetry and their variation with advancing age. Cortex 44(6):707–16. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2006.10.002
View in Google Scholar

Vuoksimaa E, Koskenvuo M, Rose RJ, Kaprio J. 2009. Origins of handedness: A nationwide study of 30 161 adults. Neuropsychologia 47:1294 –301.
View in Google Scholar

Walker I, Henneberg M. 2007. Writing with non-dominant hand: cross-handedness trainability in adult individuals. Laterality 12(2):121–30. doi:10.1080/13576500600989665
View in Google Scholar

Zverev YP. 2006. Cultural and environmental pressure against left-hand preference in urban and semi-urban Malawi. Brain Cogn 60:295–303.
View in Google Scholar