The influence of a hand preference for acquiring objects on the development of a hand preference for unimanual manipulation from 6 to 14 months

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
George F. Michel, Professor (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/

Abstract: Development of hand preferences for unimanual manipulation of objects was exploredin 90 infants (57 males) tested monthly from 6 to 14 months. From a larger sample of 380infants, 30 infants with a consistentleft hand preference for acquiring objects were matchedfor sex and development of locomotion skills with 30 infants with a consistent right handpreference for acquisition and 30 with no preference. Although frequency of unimanualmanipulations increased during 6–14 month period, infants with a hand preference foracquisition did more object manipulations than those without a preference for acquisition.Multilevel modeling of unimanual manipulation trajectories for the three hand-preferencegroups revealed that hand preferences for unimanual manipulation become more distinctivewith age, and the preference is predicted by the hand preference for object acquisition.Infants with a right and left hand preference for object acquisition develop a right andleft (respectively) hand preference for unimanual manipulation. However, the majority of infants at each month do not exhibit hand preferences for unimanual manipulation thatare unlikely to occur by chance, even by 14 months. The results are consistent with a cascading theory of handedness development in which early preferences (i.e., for acquisition)are transferred to later developing preferences (i.e., for unimanual manipulation).

Additional Information

Publication
Infant Behavior and Development, 39, 107-117.
Language: English
Date: 2015
Keywords
Infant handedness, Unimanual manipulation, Lateralization , Longitudinal

Email this document to