title: The effect of familial sinistrality and academic experience on cognition in right-handed women.
abstract: Research in sex, brain lateralization, and cognition suggests that right-handed women vary in cognitive ability according to handedness inheritance patterns. Right-handed college women with positive familial sinistrality (FS+; i.e., the presence of at least one left-handed biological relative; n=30) were compared with right-handed women with negative familial sinistrality (FS-; n=30) by means of visuospatial (the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale--Revised Block Design subtest), verbal (the California Verbal Learning Test and Animal Naming), and motor performance tests (Finger Tapping and Grooved Pegboard). FS+ women outperformed FS- women on spatial tasks and used more efficient spatial strategies. The FS- group showed no corresponding verbal advantage. Spatial differences were not accounted for by motor skill, intellectual ability, or academic major.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: D'Andrea
authors.forename: Mary V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Spiers
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D012737:Sex Factors; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology