Handedness, Footedness, and Eyedness

Abstract

There is no agreement in the literature on whether there are associations among handedness, footedness, and eyedness among normal populations. These need to be clarified before studying abnormal populations. The majority of people have a right-sided preference for each of the three measures of laterality and hence some association is to be expected due to chance alone. Using three categories of laterality a statistical method which is new to these sorts of data has been used which allows the observed percentage agreement to be compared with that expected by chance for all three measures together (as well as in pairs). Its application to data from a sample of 192 young naval recruits suggests that there probably is a generalised dimension of motor laterality, at least among males.