Abstract
A growing body of evidence is reviewed showing that degree of handedness (consistent versus inconsistent) is a more powerful and appropriate way to classify handedness than the traditional one based on direction (right versus left). Experimental studies from the domains of episodic memory retrieval, belief updating/cognitive flexibility, risk perception, and more are described. These results suggest that inconsistent handedness is associated with increased interhemispheric interaction and increased access to processes localized to the right cerebral hemisphere.
Highlights
Psychological research examining “individual differences” grounded in biology typically focuses on sex and age
Another biologically based dimension of individual differences, handedness, has received much less attention. This neglect has arisen in part because handedness research has largely been the province of neuropsychologists, and such research makes little contact with the methods and theories of mainstream psychology. This lack of contact is the product of both the idiosyncratic methods employed in handedness research, and the fact that, historically, research attempting to identify key functional and structural differences between leftand right-handers has produced equivocal results
Research examining individual differences in handedness focused on the effects of direction of hand preference on behavior, thereby comparing left versus right-handers
Summary
Psychological research examining “individual differences” grounded in biology (in contrast with, for example, personality/temperament, or in experience) typically focuses on sex and age Another biologically based dimension of individual differences, handedness, has received much less attention. This neglect has arisen in part because handedness research has largely been the province of neuropsychologists, and such research makes little contact with the methods and theories of mainstream psychology. Research examining individual differences in handedness focused on the effects of direction of hand preference on behavior, thereby comparing left versus right-handers. Consistent handedness is more prevalent among females than among males While it is beyond the scope of this chapter to fully explicate the mechanisms underlying the distinction between CH and ICH, key principles involve interhemispheric communication and functional access to right hemisphere processing. The following review will focus primarily on two task domains for which interhemispheric interaction and right hemisphere access have www.frontiersin.org
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