No link between handedness and spatial navigation: evidence from over 400 000 participants in 41 countries - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Année : 2023

No link between handedness and spatial navigation: evidence from over 400 000 participants in 41 countries

Résumé

There is an active debate concerning the association of handedness and spatial ability. Past studies used small sample sizes. Determining the effect of handedness on spatial ability requires a large, cross-cultural sample of participants and a navigation task with real-world validity. Here, we overcome these challenges via the mobile app Sea Hero Quest. We analysed the navigation performance from 422 772 participants from 41 countries and found no reliable evidence for any difference in spatial ability between leftand right-handers across all countries. A small but growing gap in performance appears for participants over 64 years old, with left-handers outperforming right-handers. Further analysis, however, suggests that this gap is most likely due to selection bias. Overall, our study clarifies the factors associated with spatial ability and shows that left-handedness is not associated with either a benefit or a deficit in spatial ability.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
PRS_B_edition.pdf (1.44 Mo) Télécharger le fichier
Origine : Fichiers éditeurs autorisés sur une archive ouverte

Dates et versions

hal-04237401 , version 1 (11-10-2023)

Identifiants

Citer

P Fernandez-Velasco, Antoine Coutrot, H Oloye, J M Wiener, R C Dalton, et al.. No link between handedness and spatial navigation: evidence from over 400 000 participants in 41 countries. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2023, 290 (20231514), ⟨10.1098/rspb.2023.1514⟩. ⟨hal-04237401⟩
13 Consultations
8 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More