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

Abstract

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.

We wish to thank Sally Montgomery (Director, Science Year Northern Ireland) for funding this project; Joe McGrath for handling the on-line data retrieval; John Erskine and Alan Beaton for comments on drafts of this paper; and the student teachers at Stranmillis University College Belfast, St Mary's University College Belfast, and the Graduate School of Education, Queen's University Belfast. However, more special thanks are due to the 4835 schoolchildren throughout Northern Ireland who participated in “Hands-up for Science”.