TY - JOUR
T1 - No link between handedness and spatial navigation
T2 - evidence from over 400 000 participants in 41 countries
AU - Fernandez-Velasco, Pablo
AU - Coutrot, Antoine
AU - Oloye, Hope
AU - Wiener, J. M.
AU - Conroy Dalton, Ruth
AU - Holscher, Christoph
AU - Manley, Ed
AU - Hornberger, Michael
AU - Spiers, H. J.
N1 - Funding information: This work was supported by Deutsche Telekom, the Leverhulme Trust (award DS-2017-026) and Alzheimer's Research UK (grant no. ARUK-DT2016-1). The Irish Research Council supported P.F.-V. (grant no. GOIPD/2021/570).
PY - 2023/10/11
Y1 - 2023/10/11
N2 - 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 left- and 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.
AB - 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 left- and 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.
U2 - 10.1098/rspb.2023.1514
DO - 10.1098/rspb.2023.1514
M3 - Article
SN - 0962-8452
VL - 290
JO - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
JF - Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
IS - 2008
M1 - 20231514
ER -