The control of movement in the preferred and non-preferred hands

The nature of the difference in skill between the preferred and non-preferred hands was investigated using a peg-board task. The first experiment examined the effects of varying movement amplitude and target tolerance on performance. The difference between hands was found to be related to tolerance...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Quarterly journal of experimental psychology 1979-11, Vol.31 (4), p.641-652
Main Authors: Annett, J., Annett, Marian, Hudson, P. T. W., Turner, Ann
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Female
Functional Laterality
Humans
Male
Motor Skills
Reaction Time
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Summary:The nature of the difference in skill between the preferred and non-preferred hands was investigated using a peg-board task. The first experiment examined the effects of varying movement amplitude and target tolerance on performance. The difference between hands was found to be related to tolerance rather than movement amplitude. The second study analysed a film record of well-practised subjects, confirming the hypothesis that most of the difference between hands is due to relative slowness of the non-preferred hand in the positioning phase involving small corrective movements. Analysis of the type and number of errors further suggested that this result is not due to differences in duration of movements but to their increased frequency, implying greater accuracy of aiming with the preferred hand. Thus whilst the initial gross analysis implicated feedback processing in skill differences the more detailed analysis suggests that motor output of the nonpreferred hand is simply more variable.
ISSN:0033-555X
DOI:10.1080/14640747908400755