Development of handedness: comparison of questionnaire and performance-based measures of preference

Hand preference has been assessed primarily using questionnaires. This approach is difficult to use with children so researchers have frequently used observation of hand choice when children pick up and use tools. Recently we developed such a performance-based measure, the WatHand Box Test (WBT). Participants ranging in age from 2 to 24 years each completed the WBT and the Revised Waterloo Handedness Questionnaire. Analyses revealed a strong preference for the right hand across all age groups on both tests with no significant differences across age and a significant correlation between the two measures. These findings do not concur with other work showing children younger than six years exhibited a much smaller right-hand preference. The concordance between these two preference measures is consistent with our previous findings. However, the relatively small common variance explained in this relationship suggests that these two tests may reflect somewhat different components of preference.