Right- and left-hand skill II: Estimating the parameters of the distribution of L-R differences in males and females

Abstract

The distribution of differences between the hands (L-R) in skill, as measured by a peg-moving task, was examined for several samples in which volunteer bias was absent or minimal. After comparing the main samples for hand preference and L-R times, they were combined to give 617 males and 863 females, aged 12-63 years. There was also a smaller sample of 122 males and 156 females, aged 6-15 years. The L-R distributions were negatively skewed and leptokurtotic. They were not compatible with the sum of two normal distributions, one of right-handers and one of left-handers. They were compatible with the sum of two or three normal distributions when one was unbiased to either side and the others were shifted to the right, as expected for the dominant or additive versions of the single gene interpretation of the right shift theory of handedness (Annett, 1978b, 1979). Sex differences in L-R scores confirmed that females tend to be more dextral than males. This was true of right-handers but not of left-handers, as expected if the sex difference is due to stronger expression of the rs+ gene in females than males and if this gene is absent in the majority of left-handers. There were trends suggesting that L-R asymmetry differs with educational status, undergraduates being less shifted toward dextrality than the general population.