title: Childrens' left-turning preference is not modulated by magical ideation.
abstract: The literature on human turning preferences is inconsistent. While the few studies with children below 14 years of age uniformly describe an overall left-turning (counterclockwise) tendency, a recent Internet study with more than 1500 adults found a right-sided (clockwise) bias. We set out to investigate spontaneous turning behaviour in children age 5-3 years and, based on neuropsychiatric work in adults, also explored a potential association with magical thinking. Findings indicated a clear left-turning preference, independent of a participant's sex and handedness. Whether a child responded a question about the existence of extrasensory communication in the affirmative or not was unrelated to direction and size of turning bias and lateral preference. Our results are consistent with a left-sided turning preference reported for children, but in opposition to the clockwise bias recently described in a large-scale study with adults. Whether they point to a maturational gradient in the preferred direction of spontaneous whole-body rotation or rather to a lack of comparability between measures used in observational versus Internet-based studies remains to be further investigated. Regarding a purported association between body turns and magical thinking, our study is preliminary, as only one single question was used to probe the latter.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neurology, Neuropsychology Unit , University Hospital Zürich , Zürich , Switzerland.|b University Children Hospital, University of Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland.|c Institute of Biomedical Ethics, University of Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Jürg C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Streuli
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neurology, Neuropsychology Unit , University Hospital Zürich , Zürich , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Gina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Obrist
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neurology, Neuropsychology Unit , University Hospital Zürich , Zürich , Switzerland.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brugger
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008273:Magic / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D002666:Psychology, Child; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012399:Rotation; D013850:Thinking
keywords: Turning behaviour; developmental neuropsychology; lateral biases; motor system; neuropsychiatry