The advantage of being left-handed in interactive sports

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, Oct 2009

As compared with their prevalence in the general population, left-handers are overrepresented in the expert domain of many interactive sports. This study examined to what extent this is due to negative perceptual frequency effects—that is, whether the greater frequency of tennis matches with right-handed opponents makes it possible to discriminate the stroke movements of right-handed players more precisely. Fifty-four right-handed and 54 left-handed males in three equal-sized groups of varying levels of tennis expertise (national league experts, local league intermediates, and novices) completed a tennis anticipation test in which they had to predict the subsequent direction of an opponent’s temporally occluded tennis strokes on a computer screen. The results showed that all three groups were better at predicting the direction of strokes by right-handed players. This supports the hypothesis that the overrepresentation of left-handers in the expert domain is partly due to perceptual frequency effects.

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The advantage of being left-handed in interactive sports

NORBERT HAGEMANN 0 0 University of Mnster , Mnster, Germany As compared with their prevalence in the general population, left-handers are overrepresented in the expert domain of many interactive sports. This study examined to what extent this is due to negative perceptual frequency effectsthat is, whether the greater frequency of tennis matches with right-handed opponents makes it possible to discriminate the stroke movements of right-handed players more precisely. Fifty-four right-handed and 54 left-handed males in three equal-sized groups of varying levels of tennis expertise (national league experts, local league intermediates, and novices) completed a tennis anticipation test in which they had to predict the subsequent direction of an opponent's temporally occluded tennis strokes on a computer screen. The results showed that all three groups were better at predicting the direction of strokes by right-handed players. This supports the hypothesis that the overrepresentation of left-handers in the expert domain is partly due to perceptual frequency effects. - With slight geographical variations, the proportion of left-handers in the population seems to have hardly changed for several thousands of years (Faurie & Raymond, 2004). Depending on which activity is observed (e.g., throwing, using a hammer), it ranges from about 10% to 13% (Raymond, Pontier, Dufour, & Mller, 1996). However, among top-level international athletes, left-handers1 are overrepresented (as compared with their prevalence in the general population) in most interactive sports in which two or more athletes play or fight each other directly (e.g., tennis, fencing, or boxing), but not in noninteractive or individual sports (e.g., golf or swimming) (Grouios, 2004; Grouios, Tsorbatzoudis, Alexandris, & Barkoukis, 2000; Raymond et al., 1996). For example, in an analysis of world rankings from 1968 to 1999, Holtzen (2000) showed that lefthanders were clearly overrepresented among the worlds top 10 ranking players in tennis (male, 24.06%; female, 11.80%), the worlds number one ranking players (male, 34.4%; female, 30.3%), and Grand Slam finalists (male, 22.27%; female, 18.75%). A higher proportion of lefthanders can also be confirmed in the top ranks of other sports, such as fencing (Bisiacchi, Ripoll, Stein, Simonet, & Azemar, 1985), baseball (Coren, 1993; Goldstein & Young, 1996), and cricket (Aggleton & Wood, 1990; Edwards & Beaton, 1996; Wood & Aggleton, 1989). Earlier Explanations Two explanations for this phenomenon are discussed particularly frequently in the literature (Grouios, 2004; Grouios et al., 2000). The first assumes that left-handers possess a neuropsychological advantage (the innate superiority hypothesis); the second, that they have a strategic or tactical advantage (the strategic advantage hypothesis). Innate superiority hypothesis. Geschwind and Galaburda (1987) pointed to the developmentally determined enlargement of brain regions in the right hemisphere of left-handers, arguing that this should particularly favor them when performing activities placing demands on the right half of the brain, such as spatial imagery tasks (e.g., Rossi & Zani, 1986) or tasks requiring certain attentional functions (Bisiacchi et al., 1985). Bisiacchi et al. confirmed an advantage for left-handed fencers on several attentional tasks, suspecting that the right half of their brain is neuroanatomically highly suitable for such activities. Taddei, Viggiano, and Mecacci (1991) reported similar findings in fencing. They studied 8 male fencers (with at least 10 years of fencing experience) and 8 controls (college students). One half of each group were left-handers according to the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI; Oldfield, 1971). Using psychophysical measures (visual evoked potentials), they found that visual stimuli evoked potentials more rapidly in left-handed fencers than in right-handed fencers and that this effect was particularly marked for large visual stimuli. Particularly with regard to motor skills, one significant factor seems to be whether the motor task is performed with one hand (e.g., darts or bowling) or both hands (e.g., golf, ice hockey, or baseball). When performing a task with both hands, left-handers could benefit from the weaker lateralization of the two brain hemispheres (Grouios, 2004). The stronger nondominant side or the superior interplay between the two sides could then lead to better overall performance in bimanual activities. For example, McLean and Ciurczak (1982) concluded that this weaker lateralization was responsible for the superior average batting performance of left-handed baseball players (who both pitch and bat with their left hands), as compared with right-handed players who also bat with their left hands (but pitch with their right). Grondin, Guiard, Ivry, and Korenss (1999) analysis of the batting performance of all major league baseball players (18711992) also produced the same finding. However, (...truncated)


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Norbert Hagemann. The advantage of being left-handed in interactive sports, Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 2009, pp. 1641-1648, Volume 71, Issue 7, DOI: 10.3758/APP.71.7.1641