Das, B., Meltzer, J. A., & Armstrong, B. C. (2021). Quantitative Assessment of Handedness and Cerebral Lateralization. Journal of Natural Sciences, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.33137/jns.v2i1.34660
Download:
Author's self-archived version (.pdf)
Official version hosted by the Journal of Natural Sciences
Abstract
Handedness is the most studied human asymmetry due to its connection
to various lateralized behaviours and hence many studies have focused on
developing a valid assessment. One of the most popular is the Edinburgh
Handedness Inventory (EHI), however, its psychometric properties have
been questioned and due to its complex response format, various modified
versions of EHI are in use. One of them is a 7-item questionnaire
produced by Dragovic and Milenkovic (2013), which seeks to reduce a
potentially continuous variable to a categorical one by clearly
classifying people as right- or left- handed. The purpose of this study
was to develop a questionnaire to more accurately quantify
mixed-handedness as a continuous variable, and to investigate the
correlation between Dragovic’s modified 7-item EHI, new items created
for this study, and three performance measures (grooved pegboard,
finger-tapping and grip strength/dynamometer). A total of 113
self-reported right-, left- and mixed-handed participants were randomly
recruited to complete the questionnaire and behavioural measures. The
questionnaire data was submitted to exploratory factor analysis and
resulting factor scores were examined for correlations with behavioural
tests. Compared to the modified EHI, the questionnaire showed a more
continuous grading of handedness. Moreover, the degree of handedness on
the questionnaire showed a stronger correlation with all the performance
measures than the performance measures had amongst themselves. These
findings show that the novel questionnaire with modern-day items can
provide an accurate estimate of the degree of mixed-handedness in both
right- and left-handed individuals. Future studies should examine these
measures on a larger sample of left-handed and ambidextrous people, who
tend to be more variable than right-handers in their usage. The
questionnaire can also be suitable for studying the relationship between
variable handedness and other aspects of brain lateralization.
Keywords: Handedness, preference/performance measures, factor analysis
Copyright Notice (borrowed from David Plaut): The documents distributed here have been provided as a means to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work on a noncommercial basis. Copyright and all rights therein are maintained by the authors or by other copyright holders, notwithstanding that they have offered their works here electronically. It is understood that all persons copying this information will adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. These works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.