Hand Dominence - ...just curious/for fun

Palomar · 2004-09-13 13:29:13

*I'm right-handed. You? Any "southpaws" here? (Oh, and I know we'll hear "left-handed people are in their right minds"...lol!)

I started with a preference for left-hand dominance as a little kid, according to my mother...but around age 4 began using my right hand more dominantly (I was not coaxed or coerced to do so).

However, I think I'm rather ambidextrous as defined by "able to use both hands with equal facility."

Sometimes it seems we're all too much "simply" posted messages on a board. I thought this would be a fun and harmless personal question.

--Cindy

Rxke · 2004-09-13 17:30:29

Left.

xcept for: using scissors, turning doorkeys and... using a mouse. Last one is great for surfing and writing/jotting stuff down simultaneously.

Did they ever figure out why there is a predominant right-handedness in humans? What'ss the advantage/disadvantage? (except for being in majority of course. )

Cobra Commander · 2004-09-13 18:12:53

Right.

Though I can type left or right handed. ???

... using a mouse. Last one is great for surfing and writing/jotting stuff down simultaneously.

Funny you should say that, I do the same from time to time, only I find it much easier with a trackball. The cheap symmetrical ones, of course. Tried it the other way, but the resulting handwriting was even more unintelligible than normal.

Shaun Barrett · 2004-09-13 19:38:03

Right.
My left is only there for decoration!
Wait ... correction! I'm good at left-handed gear changes in cars. In fact, I can't imagine changing gears right-handed, as people have to do in all those countries where they drive on the wrong side of the road!

smurf975 · 2004-09-13 19:45:45

Left and the funny thing is that I'm exactlly like Rxke however I don't have a preference when typing on a keyboard.

Did they ever figure out why there is a predominant right-handedness in humans? What'ss the advantage/disadvantage? (except for being in majority of course. )

I don't know but an amazing fact is that all polar bears are left "footed".

Palomar · 2004-09-14 05:00:33

Right.
My left is only there for decoration!
Wait ... correction! I'm good at left-handed gear changes in cars. In fact, I can't imagine changing gears right-handed,

*Ah yes, the changing of the gears matter...I think we touched on that a few years ago in a long-buried post.

I'm glad we shift on the right, here in the U.S. I recall that big old pickup truck my father taught me to drive standard, when I was 15. Geez, I could barely get that danged stick to move to put it in ANY gear. It took all the strength I had in my right arm. If I'd had to change gears with my left arm...forget it.

But Shaun, IIRC, you said you prefer to keep your right hand on the steering wheel.

Smurf: and the funny thing is that I'm exactlly like Rxke however I don't have a preference when typing on a keyboard.

*Um...we must have some "hunt and peck" typists here. I use both hands equally to type! :laugh: QWERTY! or FDSA - JKL; - ! I'm a professional typist so I find some comments here a bit amusing (no offense intended).

--Cindy

P.S.: As to why most humans are right-handed...I used to know an explanation, but I've forgotten. Time to Google perhaps. The ol' memory pan is getting full. :;):

Cobra Commander · 2004-09-14 05:58:02

In fact, I can't imagine changing gears right-handed, as people have to do in all those countries where they drive on the wrong side of the road!

You mean the right side.

*Um...we must have some "hunt and peck" typists here. I use both hands equally to type!

Not exactly, I have my own "system." I used to hunt and peck, but now that the "hunting" part is no longer necessary I just type very fast, both hands or either one, whatever works at the time.

But if I lose my rhythm I end up with undecipherable gibberish.

Shaun Barrett · 2004-09-14 20:25:08

CC:-

You mean the right side.

:laugh: O.K., O.K. ... ! I won't pursue that one. :;):

Despite your modest protestations about "the ol' memory pan .. getting full", Cindy, it seems to me your memory is just fine. I had only the vaguest recollection of the previous discussion on right and left-handed driving, whereas you've obviously retained it in some detail.
I suspect you have a mind like the proverbial 'steel trap'!

Shaun Barrett · 2004-09-14 20:37:48

By the way, I hadn't heard the expression "hunt and peck" until now. It's a very evocative description of how my typing began, that's for sure!!
It must be quite amusing for people like you, Cindy, who are so many levels of proficiency above such primitive techniques. So, you can be forgiven a small amount of quiet mirth at the ineptitude of people like me.

I guess I'm a little like you, CC, in as much as I seem to know instinctively where the keys are now, though I'm still 'pecking' with index fingers only. But I still have to watch the keyboard because I have no 'positional sense' without visual input, which sometimes leads me to typing out whole sentences in capital letters before I look up and see what I've done! At that point, especially if I'm tired, I tend to use colourful language ... you know, things like "drat" and "oh bother"!!
:laugh:

[Wipe that smile off your face, Cindy! :;): ]

smurf975 · 2004-09-14 20:47:00

To all I recommend http://www.typingmaster.com/index.asp]the software called typing master which helped me to touch type (without looking) however I didn't finish the course.

Have a look at it and try the demo. And enjoy faster and more productive typing.

Trebuchet · 2004-09-14 23:06:05

Righthanded for writing, golf, throwing footballs, etc. Lefthanded for hockey and a few other things. I bat equally well (equally bad is possibly more accurate) from either side of the plate.

I'm right-footed as well.

I believe right/left isn't absolute, based on this and watching other people. There is some sort of sliding scale thing going on. Plus, the times I've tried playing hockey righthanded, I played atrociously, about as bad as my lefthanded handwriting. So somehow things are wired different for different actions.

Rxke · 2004-09-15 04:47:12

Hmmm... I consider myself a hunt 'n pecker.. but lotsa times i type in al but complete darkness... dimmed lights, monitor set to absolute lowest brightness... My kboard is *not* readable that way, still I do fine (most of the time, heh...)

Strange thing is, most of the time i type faster in darkness than in good lighting conditions???

John Creighton · 2004-09-15 15:08:59

I use my right more but I am pretty ambidextrous. I can actually do lay-ups in basketball better with my left hand then my right. Of course that is probably because I jump higher off my right foot. :band:

Mad Grad Student · 2004-09-15 22:18:32

Right.

Both of my history teachers are left-handed, though, and claim that left-handed people are naturally smarter. Ummm, sure, why not? :hm:

Well, I suppose da Vinci was left handed, and some other people I read about in a packet in fourth grade that I can't remember now. I'd assume that it really doesn't matter what hand you use, but it is interesting that humans are predominately right-handed. I wonder what it's like in other primates with opposible thumbs.

I was a hunt/pekcer for a long time (five years, hey, that's a third of my lifetime so far), but for some reason in seventh grade everything just seemed to "click" mentally and suddenly I just couldn't imagine not knowing all the keys and finger positions like the back of my hand. It's one of those things like learning to read sheet music or the night sky. I spent nearly an hour in my back yard trying to make sense of the constellation Draco (it's very, VERY hard to see very many stars in urban Phoenix during the monsoon season), but once I made it out, that image never went away, and I can find it almost instantly (assuming the stars are visible).

I can get up to 65 wpm on good days, so I'll share a heartly laguh at all of you hunt-and-peckers with Cindy here, ahem:
:laugh: :laugh:

I've always wanted to learn to type with the D'Vorak setup, it's supposed to be much faster than the primitive ol' QWERTY system, but it's a low priority for me and hence I've never really found the time. As for uses for my left hand? Well, I put it to good use typing, maning the airbrakes in the sailplane cockpit, and opening the lids off of beverage containers, during which my left hand oddly enough takes the dominant role. Of course, it makes it harder to use the hand when there's a big gaping hole in the middle of it, which mine has had ever since I had a mole removed from it a few weeks ago. It should go away after a while, but it's odd looking down and seeing this big patch of bright brand-new pink skin surrounded by the old, teenage stuff that was never affected.

Trebuchet · 2004-09-16 05:53:54

Oh! Another thing!

The left hand is good for expressing an opinion while the right handles the car. Bastard nearly hit me.

Cobra Commander · 2004-09-16 06:00:06

Oh! Another thing!
The left hand is good for expressing an opinion while the right handles the car. Bastard nearly hit me.

On a related note, quite a few people in Detroit can shoot left-handed as well.
???

bolbuyk · 2004-09-16 12:00:51

Right-handed

There has been research on this topic, but results are not clear. People are essentially not symmetrical, it's obvious when looking at the digestive system. But also brain-functions differ in the right and left hemisphere. Dominance in the hemisphere is associated with dominance in the hand on the other side, but this is not always the case. There are a very few people who are as a whole mirrored (appendix on the left). About 15% of all people seem to be left-handed.

One explanation for predominance of righthandedness is the way a righthanded mother takes her child in the arms: Theleft shyoulder of the child is limited in action, so it develops a dominant right hand.

Euler · 2004-09-19 20:21:40

Right handed

I usually type with both hands, but I have also learned how to type at a reasonable pace using just my left hand, so that my right hand can control the mouse while I am typing.

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#1 2004-09-13 13:29:13

Re: Hand Dominence - ...just curious/for fun

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Re: Hand Dominence - ...just curious/for fun

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