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The Impact of Handedness, Sex, and Cognitive Abilities on Left-Right Discrimination: A Behavioral Study
Martin Constant1,2,3,4, Emmanuel Mellet1,2,3,4
1Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives (IMN), UMR 5293, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France.
Abstract:
The present study examined the relationship between left-right discrimination (LRD) performance and handedness, sex and cognitive abilities. In total, 31 men and 35 women - with a balanced ratio of left-and right-handers - completed the Bergen Left-Right Discrimination Test. We found an advantage of left-handers in both identifying left hands and in verifying "left" propositions. A sex effect was also found, as women had an overall higher error rate than men, and increasing difficulty impacted their reaction time more than it did for men. Moreover, sex interacted with handedness and manual preference strength. A negative correlation of LRD reaction time with visuo-spatial and verbal long-term memory was found independently of sex, providing new insights into the relationship between cognitive skills and performance on LRD.
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