TY - JOUR
T1 - Hand preference side and its relation to hand preference switch history among old and oldest-old adults
AU - Porac, Clare
AU - Friesen, Ingrid C.
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge the funding support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the David and Dorothy Lam Endowment, University of Victoria Centre on Aging.
PY - 2000
Y1 - 2000
N2 - The last 10 years of research on adult hand preference patterns have generated a controversy over the meaning of the difference in the incidence rates of left- and right-hand preference in older adult samples (> 60 years old) when compared to samples of younger individuals (< 30 years old). Age differences in hand preference prevalence often are studied with large, cross-sectional age samples; however, with 1 notable exception (Gilbert and Wysocki, 1992), these large samples frequently are dominated numerically by individuals below the age of 45 years. This study reports on hand preference data from a sample of 1,277 individuals between the ages of 65 and 100 years. Overall, the participants in this sample displayed an incidence of 93.1% right preference versus 6.9% left preference. However, the occurrence of age differences in right-hand use when the oldest-old adults (>73 years old) were compared to the others in this sample were only apparent for writing hand preference. Variation in hand preference prevalence was related to whether an individual reported a history of attempts to switch preference toward the right side. These findings support the view that age-related variations in hand preference prevalence are best explained by a number of factors, the interaction of which is still not well understood (Hugdahl, Satz, Mitmshina, and Miller, 1993; Hugdahl, Zaucha, Satz, Mitmshina, and Miller, 1996).
AB - The last 10 years of research on adult hand preference patterns have generated a controversy over the meaning of the difference in the incidence rates of left- and right-hand preference in older adult samples (> 60 years old) when compared to samples of younger individuals (< 30 years old). Age differences in hand preference prevalence often are studied with large, cross-sectional age samples; however, with 1 notable exception (Gilbert and Wysocki, 1992), these large samples frequently are dominated numerically by individuals below the age of 45 years. This study reports on hand preference data from a sample of 1,277 individuals between the ages of 65 and 100 years. Overall, the participants in this sample displayed an incidence of 93.1% right preference versus 6.9% left preference. However, the occurrence of age differences in right-hand use when the oldest-old adults (>73 years old) were compared to the others in this sample were only apparent for writing hand preference. Variation in hand preference prevalence was related to whether an individual reported a history of attempts to switch preference toward the right side. These findings support the view that age-related variations in hand preference prevalence are best explained by a number of factors, the interaction of which is still not well understood (Hugdahl, Satz, Mitmshina, and Miller, 1993; Hugdahl, Zaucha, Satz, Mitmshina, and Miller, 1996).
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U2 - 10.1207/S15326942DN1702_05
DO - 10.1207/S15326942DN1702_05
M3 - Article
C2 - 10955204
AN - SCOPUS:0033881428
SN - 8756-5641
VL - 17
SP - 225
EP - 239
JO - Developmental Neuropsychology
JF - Developmental Neuropsychology
IS - 2
ER -