A survey of sidedness in Northern Irish schoolchildren: The interaction of sex, age, and task

The study examined lateral preference in use of hands, feet, eyes, and ears in a group of nearly 5000 schoolchildren in Northern Ireland. Performance tests were carried out by student teachers during their school-based work in 2002 and data were submitted on-line. Six tasks were used-writing, throwi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Laterality (Hove) 2007-01, Vol.12 (1), p.1-18
Main Authors: Greenwood, Julian G., Greenwood, Jeremy J. D., McCullagh, John F., Beggs, Jim, Murphy, Colette A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Age Factors
Bias
Child
Child, Preschool
Data Collection
Female
Functional Laterality - physiology
Gender
Handedness
Humans
Male
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland - epidemiology
Preferences
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Sex Factors
Students - statistics & numerical data
Young children
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Summary:The study examined lateral preference in use of hands, feet, eyes, and ears in a group of nearly 5000 schoolchildren in Northern Ireland. Performance tests were carried out by student teachers during their school-based work in 2002 and data were submitted on-line. Six tasks were used-writing, throwing a ball, kicking a ball, hopping, listening to quiet sounds, and looking through a cardboard tube. There was right bias in every task but the extent of it differed between tasks. Males were generally less right biased than females, and younger children less than older ones; for hearing, the changes with age were markedly different in the two sexes, with females showing a strong increase in right bias but males showing none. These observational results do little to illuminate the reasons for the patterns observed.
ISSN:1357-650X
1464-0678
DOI:10.1080/13576500600886630