ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana-Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2009 June;168(3):169-77

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Re-examination of useful items for determining hand dominance

Demura S. ¹, Sato S. ², Nagasawa Y. ³

¹ Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa University Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan 2 Life-long Sports Kanazawa Institute of Technology Nonoichi, Ishikawa, Japan 3 Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, Kyoto, Japan

This study aimed to select useful items to assess handedness, referring to Oldfield’s inventory (1971). Subjects were 1 680 males (18.4±1.7 years) and 1 583 females (18.9±1.4 years). Twenty items including the Oldfield’ 10 items were used in this study, and four items holding a tennis racket, holding a bat (upper hand), striking a match and broom were found to be inappropriate for discriminating handedness in the young Japanese population, because of inexperience with them. We calculated the laterality quotient (LQ) and Ï coefficient according to Oldfield, and useful 10 items were selected based on the LQ-Ï relation. Among these 10 items, the best four-item combination (hammer, cutter knife, writing and throwing) with highest discriminating accuracy was found. As in the work of Oldfield, these four items could correctly determine handedness with a probability of 97.9%. These four items can determine handedness with a comparable accuracy to Oldfield’s inventory and with greater simplicity.