The assessment of laterality

Abstract

Among those working in the field of psychological assessment, there are a number who express uneasiness about tests of lateral dominance, particularly their relationship with the whole gamut of problems attributed to laterality difficulties, and also the degree of agreement among available forms of assessment. Many items on tests do not appear strongly localised in either right or left handers, with attested right handers frequently responding left, and left handers right; on the other extreme, an item is often answered consistently right for both left and right handers and hence it is often not clear whether the "mixed dominant" or "strongly right dominant" patterns that appear are real or a function of poorly discriminating questions. The object of this investigation was to look at the range of items in use to check both their authenticity and consistency. To do this a series of laterality items/tests were administered to a group of subjects and the results statistically analysed for consistency. A collection of the most reliable items was assembled to make a new test, and this was administered to a second group of subjects.