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EYE‐HAND CO‐ORDINATION AND ‘HANDEDNESS’: A DEVELOPMENTAL STUDY OF VISUO‐MOTOR BEHAVIOUR IN INFANCY
Author(s) -
SETH G.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
british journal of educational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.557
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 2044-8279
pISSN - 0007-0998
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8279.1973.tb00735.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , motor skill , laterality , ocular dominance , neuroscience , visual cortex
S ummary . The development of eye‐hand co‐ordination and ‘handedness' was investigated in normal infants aged from 20 to 52 weeks. Systematic cinema records were made of visuo‐manual behaviour in the single cube, pellet and bell situations from the Gesell developmental examination. These were subsequently analysed to provide a series of curves which elucidate the trends in the development of integrated visuo‐motor behaviour during the period studied. The developmental process is complicated by the related problem of the systematic changes that apparently occur over the same period in lateral asymmetry (‘handedness’). Several indices of ‘handedness' confirmed a marked predominance of the left hand in the youngest age groups. Consistently over the three test situations, and probably significantly in its relationship to the eye‐hand linkage, this initial ‘left‐handedness' gives way during the third quarter of the first year to right‐hand dominance. The way in which the shift occurs lends support to a maturational, rather than a learning or social pressure, explanation of lateral asymmetry. Moreover, the developmental sequence is such that the right‐hand take‐over appears to occur on the basis of cross‐education (bilateral transfer) rather than of direct practice by the right hand itself.