title: How sensitive are handedness prevalence figures to differences in questionnaire classification procedures?
abstract: Questionnaire data from 572 subjects show that the proportion of right-handers to nonright-handers varies greatly (from 1:100 to 92:8) as a function of questionnaire length, graded or forced response to items, and cut-off criteria. For this reason, the right-handed/nonright-hander dichotomy is singularly unsuited as a basis for classification when handedness is to be related to some other neuropsychological factor as an independent variable. This is especially the case when very strict cut-off criteria are used to define right-handedness (e.g., only those individuals who prefer the right hand for all activities listed).
authors.affiliation: Dept. Psychology, University of Guelph, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Peters
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D015203:Reproducibility of Results