Speed of color naming and degree of familial sinistrality: correlation in girls, no correlation in boys.
Twenty-nine male and 35 female right-handed children, aged 5 to 7, were assessed for the effect of familial sinistrality on a rapid color-naming task. Controlling for age and family size, a significant effect for degree of familial sinistrality was found in the girls but not in the boys. Among the girls, those with two or more left-handed or ambidextral relatives were the fastest on the color-naming task, those with no such relatives were the slowest, and those with only one left-handed or ambidextral relative scored between the other two groups in color-naming speed. It is suggested that a gene associated with left-handedness, when present in a right-hander, interacts with sex to produce the superior color-naming performance that we observed in girls but not in boys.
D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003118:Color Perception; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D012737:Sex Factors; D014705:Verbal Behavior