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The influence of a hand preference for acquiring objects on the development of a hand preference for unimanual
Julie M Campbell1, Emily C Marcinowski2, Iryna Babik3
1Center for Developmental Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States; Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, United States.
Insights
Infant hand preference for object acquisition predicts later hand preference for unimanual manipulation. Early preferences cascade, influencing later motor skill development in babies.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Human Motor Development
Background:
- Handedness, the preference for using one hand over the other, emerges during infancy.
- Understanding the developmental trajectory of hand preference is crucial for cognitive and motor development research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the development of hand preferences for unimanual object manipulation in infants.
- To determine if early hand preferences for object acquisition predict later preferences for manipulation.
Main Methods:
- Longitudinal study of 90 infants from 6 to 14 months of age.
- Comparison of three groups: consistent left, consistent right, and no hand preference for object acquisition.
- Multilevel modeling to analyze unimanual manipulation trajectories and hand preference development.
Main Results:
- Frequency of unimanual manipulation increased with age.
- Infants with acquisition hand preference showed more object manipulations.
- Hand preferences for manipulation became more distinct with age and were predicted by acquisition preference.
Conclusions:
- Early hand preferences for object acquisition influence the development of hand preferences for unimanual manipulation.
- Findings support a cascading theory of handedness development.
- Most infants do not exhibit statistically significant hand preferences for unimanual manipulation by 14 months.
Abstract:
Development of hand preferences for unimanual manipulation of objects was explored in 90 infants (57 males) tested monthly from 6 to 14 months. From a larger sample of 380 infants, 30 infants with a consistent left hand preference for acquiring objects were matched for sex and development of locomotion skills with 30 infants with a consistent right hand preference for acquisition and 30 with no preference. Although frequency of unimanual manipulations increased during 6-14 month period, infants with a hand preference for acquisition did more object manipulations than those without a preference for acquisition. Multilevel modeling of unimanual manipulation trajectories for the three hand-preference groups revealed that hand preferences for unimanual manipulation become more distinctive with age, and the preference is predicted by the hand preference for object acquisition. Infants with a right and left hand preference for object acquisition develop a right and left (respectively) hand preference for unimanual manipulation. However, the majority of infants at each month do not exhibit hand preferences for unimanual manipulation that are unlikely to occur by chance, even by 14 months. The results are consistent with a cascading theory of handedness development in which early preferences (i.e., for acquisition) are transferred to later developing preferences (i.e., for unimanual manipulation).
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