handedness in engineering and psychology students

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Human Factors Engineering

Background:

• Handedness, the preference for using one hand over the other, is a complex trait with varying prevalence across different populations.
• Previous research suggests potential links between handedness and cognitive abilities, including spatial skills.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate and compare patterns of handedness between engineering students and a general undergraduate psychology student population.
• To explore potential correlations between academic specialization and handedness prevalence.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Oldfield (1971) handedness questionnaire to assess handedness in both student groups.
• Compared the incidence of right-handedness and left-handedness between a highly selected engineering sample and a representative psychology sample.

Main Results:

• The general distribution of right- and left-handedness aligned with expectations for both groups.
• A statistically significant higher degree of right-handedness (dextrality) was observed in the engineering student sample compared to the psychology student sample.

Conclusions:

• The findings suggest a potential association between majoring in engineering and a greater prevalence of right-handedness.
• The observed difference in dextrality between the groups warrants further investigation into the underlying factors, possibly related to mathematico-spatial skills.