Expression of Laterality and Recall of Early Education by Persons over Sixty-Two Years of Age

Abstract

126 persons in three different senior citizen sites, aged 62 to 98 yr., were tested for hand and eye dominance and given a questionnaire concerning their early recollections of handedness and school experience. 40% showed cross-laterality. The group with the highest rate of cross-dominance (52%) was also the group having the highest mean age and the highest percent of college education. Pearsonian correlations indicated small but statistically significant relationships with age of reading 0.166 and eye dominance and ease of reading with writing 0.322 and with spelling 0.177. Ease of writing also had a small statistically significant correlation with ease of spelling 0.272. These findings were related to earlier studies of young children which suggested association of cross-laterality and socioeconomic condition.