Premium Essay

The Left-Handedness Problem

In:

Submitted By lsirui
Words 3847
Pages 16
Sirui Liu
Meihung Lin
English 106
November 24, 2008
In lots of ways we human distinguished ourselves from other species, such as straight-walking, the invention of language, the use of tools, etc. We also have highly flexible hands – their versatility doesn’t fall short of a Swiss army knife. But you may have noticed at times that one of your hands is not nearly as flexible, or useful, if you want to put it that way, as the other. Typically the “better” hand we have is the same hand we use for handwriting, which in most cases is the right hand. It is also known that not only do people prefer one hand over the other, but they also have preferred feet, eyes, even ears. Again, the right side is favored. However, study on chimpanzees – specie that shares more than 90% of our genes, showed some preference in body usage but unlike that of a human it was never consistent: close to 50% of them use left side and 50% right (McManus 192). This makes one wonder if there is something special about human that makes us shift towards right-handedness, and that what the shift has to do with our other unique qualities.
The way our brain operates has always been more of a myth. A study on the relationship between hand preferences and brain functioning could lead us to better understand the developmental neurobiology of our brain. Finding the underlying mechanism of the cause of handedness not only satisfies our curiosity but also contributes to our knowledge of how we function as specie. It could lead us to explain certain illness and maybe group people into more categories. Finally, left-handers in history had been discriminated against and even today, in many countries and cultures the use of left hand is very unwelcome. A more scientific understanding of handedness will hopefully make people realize the difference between what is “right” and what is correct.
Therefore, I ask

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Left-Handed Verses Right-Handed

...The Difference Between Being Left-Handed and Right-Handed About 90 percent of the world’s population is right-handed and only 10 percent is left-handed. It is exceptionally rare for a true ambidexterity. Most left-handed people develop some mixed-handedness by living in a world where most everyday objects are for right-handed people (Balter, 2009). Balter says “one researcher hot on the trail of these issues is Natalie Uomini, an archeologist at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom” (2009). Uomini states that handedness does not mean that one hand is more dominant over the other. She rather says that “both hands have different but equally important manual dexterity whereas the left hand might perform the more mundane but nevertheless crucial role of supporting an object” (Balter, 2009). Most children begin to emerge between the ages of seven and thirteen months and are well-established by age three (Balter, 2009). When figuring out when such consistency arose in humans is not an easy task. In small number of cases, it is possible to detect signs of handedness in early human fossils by the size of the shoulder and arm bones. There is a clear destination as indicated by the deeper bone insertions of the deltoid muscles in his clavicle and the greater length of the ulna (Balter, 2009). Uomini found out that even though hand bias may be hard to detect among early humans, there is clear evidence from the large number of Neandertal skeletons. The Neandertal skeletons...

Words: 1078 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Ib Exam2

...CHAPTER 6 POPULATION GENETICS SELECTION 1. Which of the following options factually completes the statement, "If a population is in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium..."? a. There can be no more than two alleles. b. The two alleles will be present at equal frequency. c. Allele frequencies will not change from one generation to the next. d. The dominant allele will be more common. |Correct Answer: |C, Allele frequencies will not change from one generation to the next. | [pic] 2. If allele frequencies do not change from one generation to the next, is the population definitely in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium? Why or why not?   No, it might not be in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Any process that selectively targets heterozygotes can affect genotype frequencies without necessarily changing allele frequencies in the next generation. Examples are nonrandom mating, overdominance, and underdominance. [pic] 3. The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium principle yields which of the following conclusions? a. If the allele frequencies in a population are given by p and q, the genotype frequencies are given by p2, 2 pq and q2. b. The allele frequencies in a population will not change over time. c. If the allele frequencies in a population are given by p and q, the genotype frequencies are given by p2 and q2. d. The first and third answers are correct. e. The first and second choices are correct. |Correct Answer:...

Words: 9821 - Pages: 40

Premium Essay

Abnormal Psych

...Abnormal Psychology by Saul McLeod twitter icon published 2008, updated 2014 Abnormal psychology is a division of psychology that studies people who are "abnormal" or "atypical" compared to the members of a given society. There is evidence that some psychological disorders are more common than was previously thought. Depending on how data are gathered and how diagnoses are made, as many as 27% of some population groups may be suffering from depression at any one time (NIMH, 2001; data for older adults). There are many ways that abnormality can be defined. For example: Statistical Infrequency Under this definition of abnormality, a person's trait, thinking or behavior is classified as abnormal if it is rare or statistically unusual. With this definition it is necessary to be clear about how rare a trait or behavior needs to be before we class it as abnormal IQ graph For instance one may say that an individual who has an IQ below or above the average level of IQ in society is abnormal. However this definition obviously has limitations, it fails to recognize the desirability of the particular behavior. Going back to the example, someone who has an IQ level above the normal average wouldn't necessarily be seen as abnormal, rather on the contrary they would be highly regarded for their intelligence. This definition also implies that the presence of abnormal behavior in people should be rare or statistically unusual, which is not the case. Instead...

Words: 564 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

The Differences Between Women's and Men's Brain.Docx

...issues, and utilizes non-verbal cues such as tone, emotion, and empathy whereas men tend to be more task-oriented, less talkative, and more isolated. Men have a more difficult time understanding emotions that are not explicitly verbalized, while women tend to intuit emotions and emotional cues. These differences explain why men and women sometimes have difficulty communicating and why men-to-men friendships look different from friendships among women. 2. Left brain vs. both hemispheres. Men tend to process better in the left hemisphere of the brain while women tend to process equally well between the two hemispheres. This difference explains why men are generally stronger with left-brain activities and approach problem-solving from a task-oriented perspective while women typically solve problems more creatively and are more aware of feelings while communicating. 3. Mathematical abilities. An area of the brain called the inferior-parietal lobule (IPL) is typically significantly larger in men, especially on the left side, than in women. This section of the brain is thought to control mental mathematical ability, and probably explains why men frequently perform higher in mathematical tasks than...

Words: 980 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Pointing Devices

...Pointing Devices 1 Introduction & Rationale A mouse is a pointing device used to input movement onto a GUI via detecting the shift of X and Y coordinates, as the mouse is moved from one position to another. The mouse was first invented in 1964 by Douglas Engelbart and changed the use of computers from scientists only to consumer friendly. [Inventors.about.com, (n.d.)]. The mouse was chosen as the device as its user friendly with few physical input demonstrated by the fact it is a ubiquitous device found all over the world. 2 Ergonomics Ergonomics, the study of how efficiently an environment can facilitate work is a key part of mouse design. Since, the first pointing devices, such as the ones produced at Xerox Parc, computer device have iteratively been improved to achieve as much ergonomic efficiency as possible. Figure 1: The Evolution of Mice As you can see computer mice have followed an extensive evolution over their 44 year existence (19682012). Initial designs were extremely square and were only designed to fit a human hand in terms of size not shape. Furthermore, the status quo of computer mice today are designed to include three buttons (one doubles as a scroll wheel) and to fit the a right hand of a human. It is interesting to note how modern designs have foregone the ambidextrous nature of their predecessors as they value the shape of the mouse more than said feature. 3 Psychology of Interaction The computer mouse provides a natural environment in...

Words: 1239 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Preschool Obser

...Sample Paper Professor Flores CD 125 07/10/11 PRESCHOOL OBSERVATION PAPER Part I Setting July 22, 2009, 3:30 PM, Pilgrim Lutheran Preschool Chula Vista, CA. Addie, almost 3 years old Each classroom was made up of two adults and a specific age group of preschoolers, from 2 ½, 3, 4, or 5 years old. In the classroom where I began my observation there were two teachers and nine children (we later moved to the playground). I felt that the preschool was a very safe environment for the children. The front yards of the school were completely fenced so no children can run off the property. It seemed to be a healthy place for the children to play both inside and out. The preschool is very spacious and it is across the parking lot from the elementary school it feeds into. Approaching the preschool you are greeted by large, blue letters, “PILGRIM LUTHERAN PRESCHOOL”. There is a gate in the middle of the fence with a handle so that only a certain height can reach. On either side of the path to enter the main building is a nice green lawn where the children can play with toys for outside. As the door is opened you hear an alarm beep which to me said this school is a safe place for these kids, the teachers are always aware when someone walks into the building. There is a spacious kitchen where the teachers prepare their snacks for their class. There are four classrooms for the four specific age groups. Each classroom was equipped with desks and chairs suitable for young children...

Words: 4558 - Pages: 19

Premium Essay

Early Childhood Development

...Child Development: Early Childhood Shaniela Jarrett DEP2004 Child Development: Early Childhood From the immediate beginning of every human beings life they develop in one way or another. The beginning of a human beings development and all its aspects starts with infancy and progresses for the duration of one’s life span. Toddlers and young children are thought to be influenced by their everyday surroundings. An adolescent’s cognitive and social aspects of development are formed and shaped from an early age, along with their perception, language, motor skills, and speech. A young adolescent’s lifecycle is heavy influenced by the involvement of their parents and family members, this is crucial to a young child’s life. Once an adolescent becomes of age to attend school, they will also start to adjust to the atmosphere of the school they are attending as well as the instructive setting in the school; this will also play a role in an adolescent’s cognitive development and social skills. The body’s growth in the first couple years of early childhood stage with attenuate into a slower growth pattern. A child adds approximately 2 to 3 inches in stature and around 5 pounds in weight each year, girls will be slightly smaller than boys. From Infancy to Early childhood, one with experience skeletal growth, between the ages of 2 and 6 will grow approximately 45 new pineal, where cartilage will strengthen forming various parts of the skeletons. Children start losing their primary tooth...

Words: 1224 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Psych Test

...PRESCHOOL Just look at this→think of examples for all of them Chapter 7: Physical & Cognitive Development • Growth & ability of the body Right/ left handedness emerges early Bone ossification Gross motor skills • Brain lateralization—certain cognitive functions are located more in 1 hemisphere of brain than other→ become more pronounced during preschool years o Right vs. Left hemisphere specialization • Left hemisphere- speaking, reading, thinking & reasoning • Right Hemisphere- Spatial relationships, pattern recognition & emotional expression (global processing) o What are examples of skills associated with the right and left hemisphere? o Some specialization of each hemisphere, BUT each can perform most tasks of the other. EX: right hemisphere does some language processing and does important role in language comprehension • Piaget’s preoperational stage of cognitive development (early childhood: 2—6) o Children at this time increase in use of symbolic thinking, mental reasoning, use of concepts.. Representational thought • EX: seeing moms car keys(symbol) prompts u to ask “are we going to the store?” • Primarily defined by limitations. Characterized by centration o Aren’t capable of operations→ organized/formal mental process that develops in school-aged children o Confuses own POV w/ others & cant consider multiple characteristics of stuff o Period of centration- concentrating on 1 limited aspect of stimulus & ignoring other stimulus. (EX: a cat w/ dog...

Words: 1374 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

The Iron Lady

...EARLY CHILDHOOD: Physical, Cognitive and Psychosocial Development Bodily Growth and Change  Around age 3, children lose “baby roundness” ◦ Limbs lengthen, height increases  Cartilage turns to bone faster Brain Development  By 6 years, brain is at 95% peak volume Corpus callosum, linking left and right hemispheres, improves functioning Most rapid growth in areas that support thinking, language, and spatial relations   Motor Skills Gross  ◦ Involves large muscle groups ◦ Jumping and running  Fine ◦ Using eye-hand and smallmuscle coordination ◦ Buttoning a shirt, drawing pictures Handedness Usually evident by age 3  Heritability  Cognitive Development: Symbolic Function  The ability to use symbols that have meaning ◦ Words ◦ Numbers ◦ Images  Examples ◦ Deferred imitation ◦ Pretend play and language DEFERRED IMITATION • Having a mental representation of a previously observed event PRETEND PLAY • Play involving imaginary people and situations Understanding Objects in Space Why is it hard for children under age 3 to understand scale models and maps?  Because they need to keep more than one mental representation in the mind at one time  Advancing spatial thinking:  • Using simple maps and models becomes easier after age 3 Causality  Transduction: Mentally linking phenomena, whether logical or not • “My parents got a divorce because I was bad.”  Familiar settings...

Words: 1102 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Morality of Homosexuality

...Introduction In the United States and in many European countries, lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals are arguing against many of the negative depictions of homosexuality fostered by the Judeo-Christian tradition and, more recently, the field of psychology. The emergence of nineteenth century medicine and psychoanalysis challenged many traditional religious perspectives, but in certain respects it also sought to ’’validate" the long held view that homosexual women and men reflect the most base forms of human existence. A large number of social ills and perverse behaviors were, and often are, linked to homosexuality. As a consequence, homosexuals have encountered a myriad of severe labels from "psychopathological" to "criminal” as well as attempts by psychiatrists to administer lobotomies and electro-shock therapy as a means to cure their malady. Studies show that religion also plays a major role along with gender and gender-role attitudes. People who are part of conservative religions tend to hold more hostile attitudes toward gay and lesbian individuals, however culture moderates the relationship between religiosity and attitudes. In developed nations, personal religiosity is a strong predictor. Adamcyzk and Pitt (2009) explored the effect of cultural orientation and religiosity on beliefs about homosexuality and found that countries with a survivalist orientation (i.e., cultures holding onto traditions and norms) tended to believe that homosexuality was not justifiable, whereas...

Words: 1264 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Strategic

...Mieke Christiani (01120119287) Everybody have different personalities. What is personality? The word personality is derived from a Latin word “Persona” which means mask. About 2000 years ago Greek actors used to wear mask in theatres so that they may resemble characters whose roles they used to enact on the stage before the audience. Thus, according to the concept of mask, personality was conceived to be the effect and influence, which the actors wearing a mask left on the audience. Nowadays, the term of personality has been defined in various ways by the psychologists who had worked on the problem of personality and the variables influencing its development. "Personality can be broadly defined as the total quality of all individual behavior” (Russell 222). “In the words of Boring, personality is the integration of those systems of habits that represent an individual’s characteristic adjustments to his environment” (Goldberg 224). “Personality is an individual of is the entire mental organization of a human being at any stage of his development. It embraces every phase of human character: intellect, temperament, skill, morality, and every attitude that has been built up in the course of one's life." (Harris 333). Personality is the characteristic patterns thoughts, feelings and behaviors that make a person unique and different with others. The various definitions of personality state above can be grouped into categories of definitions that are related to social value, summatic...

Words: 2264 - Pages: 10

Free Essay

The Many Faces of Dissociative Identity Disorder

...treatment. Lastly, I state my opinion on DID and the methods I believe with help people prevent, treat, and cope with Dissociative Identity Disorder. The Many Faces of Dissociative Identity Disorder Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder, is a mental condition where a person possesses two or more different personalities which may alternate within the individual’s conscious awareness. A person living with DID many have as little as two personalities, referred to as alters, or as many as 100, though the average is about ten. Alters may exhibit differences in speech, behaviors, attitudes, thoughts, and gender orientation. They may even have physical differences, such as allergies, right-or-left handedness, or the need for eyeglass prescriptions. At least two of these personalities assert themselves repeatedly to control the affected person's behavior and consciousness, causing long lapses in memory (Pais, 2013). When alters switch or take over individuals may not be able to remember events in all or part of a proceeding time period. They may also repeatedly encounter unfamiliar people who claim to know them, find themselves somewhere without knowing how they got there, or find items that they don't...

Words: 1849 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Analytic

...------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Submitted by: John Charlemagne Buan ------------------------------------------------- Submitted to: Ms. Harlene Santos ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Analytic geometry From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Analytic geometry, or analytical geometry, has two...

Words: 5082 - Pages: 21

Premium Essay

Dissociative Identity Dissorder

...different identities, referred to as alters, may exhibit differences in speech, mannerisms, attitudes, thoughts and gender orientation. The alters may even present physical differences, such as allergies, right-or-left handedness or the need for eyeglass prescriptions. These differences between alters are often quite striking. In clinical populations, the estimated prevalence of DID ranges from 0.5 to 1.0% (CA Ross 2006). In the general population, estimates of prevalence are somewhat higher, ranging from 1-5% . Females are more likely to receive a diagnosis of DID, at a ratio of 9:1. This author also contends that the disproportionately high number of females diagnosed with DID dispels the notion that incestual abuse is largely responsible for the development of DID. High percentages of individuals with DID have comorbid diagnoses of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or Borderline Personality Disorder. In addition, individuals diagnosed with DID commonly have a previous diagnosis of Schizophrenia. However, this most likely represents a misdiagnosis rather than comorbidity, due to the fact that both disorders involve experiencing Schneiderian symptoms. Other possible comorbid disorders involve substance abuse, eating disorders, somatoform disorders, problems of anxiety and mood, personality disorders, psychotic disorders, and organic...

Words: 1808 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Technology

...* Parietal Lobes * Occipital Lobes * Temporal Lobes * Insula Lobes * This lobe is hiding behind the temporal lobe. In folded inside, about the size of a walnut. * Outer Cortex is the outer 2-3 mm * Gyrate are the raised bumps are and sulcis are the grooves between * Cortex is all wadded up into smaller volume Frontal Lobe Functions * Personality * Asses in traumatic brain injury, or if you see change in behavior – aggressive etc * Analysis * Executive * Make decisions. * Voluntary Motor * Frontal Eye Fields (Tracking) – eyes are able to follow. * Speech (Broca’s) – EXPRESSIVE! - the delivery system of language. If they cant say it, that’s a frontal lobe problem. Parietal Lobe Functions * Somatosensory * Spatial analysis (Orientation) * Two different perspective and tell whether they’re...

Words: 2388 - Pages: 10