Handedness (PCS1)

Purpose

To assess the extent to which individuals make predominant use of one hand over the other while engaging in daily activities.  It has been suggested that handedness may be an indirect marker of cerebral lateralization.

Description

Handedness was assessed using a 3-item self-report questionnaire that was created for use in PCS1.  Specifically, participants were asked which hand they used to perform the following 3 tasks:

• Write a letter legibly
• Guide thread through the eye of a needle (or to guide the needle onto the thread)
• Hammer a nail into wood

Response options were “right” and “left” only; no option was available for ambidexterity.

Items/Scoring

All three items were scored such that endorsement of right-hand use was assigned a value of zero (0) and left-hand use a value of one (1).  A total handedness score was computed by summing the three items.  Values can be interpreted as follows:

0 = right-hand dominance

1 or 2 = mixed-handedness

3 = left-hand dominance