The answer probably lies in the fact that a majority of even left-handers use their right hand with the mouse, because they grew up in households with mice on the right side.
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Any Left-Handers here?
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The answer probably lies in the fact that a majority of even left-handers use their right hand with the mouse, because they grew up in households with mice on the right side.
Yep. I was always taught to use the mouse with my right hand. I tried to use my left hand once, but it felt uncomfortable. I doubt they even had left handed mice 10+ years ago...
Left-handed, sans the mouse-moving skills. I blame right-handed centric mice of my youth for that, despite being surrounded by Macintoshes for most of my youth. It's just that the paradigm was universal when moving to other computers. To this day, I still find myself feeling mentally challenged when I can not cut a piece of paper. It's inevitable that I can only find right-handed scissors when my paper cutting desires are in full bloom.
Actually, Apple has been, up until video playing on the iPhone/iPod touch, acutely aware of "hand dominance." I would have to sit and think a lot to come up with 5 that were hand biased.
MonksMac said:
Actually, Apple has been, up until video playing on the iPhone/iPod touch, acutely aware of "hand dominance." I would have to sit and think a lot to come up with 5 that were hand biased.
Lefty here.
Well, only when writing. I do everything else right-handed.
Computer, sports, whatever...all right handed, but put a pencil in my right-hand and it'd be a sad sight.
Well, only when writing. I do everything else right-handed.
Computer, sports, whatever...all right handed, but put a pencil in my right-hand and it'd be a sad sight.
Ditto
.Reading other posts, I now found out that I am also cross-dominant; I kick a ball with my right foot, use an iron with my right hand, and play the guitar the right-handed way (because there were no left-handed guitars).
I didn't think I would get such a rapid response! Keep it up!
To expand I eat with a knife and fork like a right handed person, kick right footed, open jars with my right hand, I use a mouse with my left but easily can use a right...play golf right handed but I am a lefty
The left hand...the strong hand. I guess I'm the odd one out because I use my left hand more so than the right.
I use my right hand for the computer mouse....I play GH3 with the guitar upside down.
Bless
I use my right hand for the computer mouse....I play GH3 with the guitar upside down.
Bless
Lefty. Living in a right handed world has made most left handers ambidexterous it would seem. I write left, throw left, play golf either way, kick with either though right foot is dominant, bat either way, switch off on the usage of the mouse to avoid wrist injury and keep the mind sharp. I tend to hold playing cards in an upside down fan versus the normal fan facing up.
I can write with my right hand, but it is easier witht he left - I can write upside down across a table from me.
They say lefties are more creative and historically Mac's have been used in the creative realm so I would venture to say that there is a higher percentage of lefties using the Mac then the 1%.
I can write with my right hand, but it is easier witht he left - I can write upside down across a table from me.
They say lefties are more creative and historically Mac's have been used in the creative realm so I would venture to say that there is a higher percentage of lefties using the Mac then the 1%.
I didn't know what a Mac even was 10+ years ago since I was barely using computers at all!
I'm kind of mixed but my left hand is stronger, it's really strange...
Writing - Right
Mouse - Right
Chopsticks/Fork - Left (fork, I'm not too sure since I haven't used them in a while...)
Scissors - Both
Holding a rifle - Left (damn, why does this one have to be a left?!?!)
Dominant Eye - Right
Everything else is right
Writing - Right
Mouse - Right
Chopsticks/Fork - Left (fork, I'm not too sure since I haven't used them in a while...)
Scissors - Both
Holding a rifle - Left (damn, why does this one have to be a left?!?!)
Dominant Eye - Right
Everything else is right
i'm a lefty... and use a mac so i'm part of that 1%
I used the mouse righty but i'm sorta used to it.
I used the mouse righty but i'm sorta used to it.
I'm not sure what I am. I eat, drink, and brush my teeth with my left hand. I use my right hand for writing, the TV remote and using a computer mouse.
Another lefty Mac user here. Of course using a mouse on the right is a given (in my experience anyway) but everything else is left-handed only.
I'm a lefty. Its great fun.
Although it pisses off the media specialist at school when I move the mouse on one of the iMacs to the left, because I never remember to move it back. Then she has to deal with first graders who freak out because the mouse isn't where it should be. They have no problem-solving skills whatsoever.
Although it pisses off the media specialist at school when I move the mouse on one of the iMacs to the left, because I never remember to move it back. Then she has to deal with first graders who freak out because the mouse isn't where it should be.
They have no problem-solving skills whatsoever.
Today, I learned that I'm not ambidextrous, but Cross-dominant (it sounds awkwardly too much like "cross-dresser").
I was only left handed, but in elementary school, my teacher used to slap my left hand with a ruler whenever she caught me writing with it, so I learned to write with my right hand, and forgot how to write with my left.
I use different sides to different things, like:
Left: Self-gratificationeek, playing soccer, mouse, spoon-knife-fork, etc...
Right: Playing guitar, writing, wiping my ass, scissors, bat.
Both: Opening jars, teeth brushing, and pretty much everything else.
I too think that living in a right handed world, made us lefties cross-thingies. (that sounded awful).
I was only left handed, but in elementary school, my teacher used to slap my left hand with a ruler whenever she caught me writing with it, so I learned to write with my right hand, and forgot how to write with my left.
I use different sides to different things, like:
Left: Self-gratification
eek, playing soccer, mouse, spoon-knife-fork, etc...Right: Playing guitar, writing, wiping my ass, scissors, bat.
Both: Opening jars, teeth brushing, and pretty much everything else.
I too think that living in a right handed world, made us lefties cross-thingies. (that sounded awful).
Yup
I'm left handed for everything, apart from the mouse i guess.
For any left handed people who bank with HSBC, they offer a left handed cheque book. Nice of them to think of us, but pretty pointless really.
I'm left handed for everything, apart from the mouse i guess.
For any left handed people who bank with HSBC, they offer a left handed cheque book. Nice of them to think of us, but pretty pointless really.
Go to the source...
Now guys (and gals), follow with me, I think you'll find this interesting and edifying (I certainly did).
So, I was still wondering on this cross-dominant thing, and I decided I'd go to a reliable source (not that the guy that posted that information was not reliable), and this is what I found in one of the most trustworthy neurological semiology text books. It was written by Russell N. DeJong, that, along with Brazis, is one of the most respected clinical neurologists of the last century. This is textual (underlines are mine) and is situated in the context of studying language deficits, which is one of the more important side-defining things we do (I hope I'm not infringing copyright here):
"About 90-95% of the population is right-handed. The left cerebral hemisphere is dominant for language in 99% of right handers, and 60% to 70% of left handers. Of the remaining left handers, about half are right hemisphere dominant and about half have mixed dominance.
Shifted sinistrals (anomalous dextrals) are naturally left-handed individuals forced by parents or teachers early in life to function right-handed, primarily for writing. This approach to dealing with left handedness has largely died out, but shifted sinistrals are still encountered, primarily in the older population.
One can therefore encounter right-handed patients (dextrals) who are left-hemisphere dominant for language, left-handed patients (sinistrals) who are still left-hemisphere dominant, "right-handed" patients who are right-hemisphere dominant (anomalous dextrals), and left-handed patients who are right hemisphere dominant (true sinistrals).
Since clinical abnormalities of higher cortical function, especially language, are heavily influenced by dominance, determination of the patient's handedness and dominance status is paramount. Only about 2% of cases of aphasia are due to unilateral right hemisphere lesions.
Cerebral dominance and handedness are at least in part, hereditary. Failure to develop clear hemispheric dominance has been offered as an explanation for such things as dyslexia, stuttering, mirror writing, learning disability and general clumsiness.
Many patients are at least to some degree ambidextrous, and it may be difficult, short of a Wada test, to be certain which hemisphere is language dominant. Various "foolproof" markers of true handedness have been proposed but all are suspect.
In right-handed patients, aphasia will be due to a left hemisphere lesion in 99% of the cases; the other 1% are crossed aphasics. In left handers the situation is much more variable. In one series of left-handed aphasics, 60% had lesions of the left hemisphere.
There may be a degree of mixed dominance for language in non-right-handed individuals. Aphasia may tend to be less severe in left handers and recovery better; just a family history of left handedness in a right-handed aphasic may predict better recovery. Basso has challenged the concept of better recovery in non-right-handed patients."
Campbell WW. DeJong's the neurological examination. 6th Ed. Philadelphia PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2005. pp. 79-80.
Now, a few things to note (and some others to chew on):
Now guys (and gals), follow with me, I think you'll find this interesting and edifying (I certainly did).
So, I was still wondering on this cross-dominant thing, and I decided I'd go to a reliable source (not that the guy that posted that information was not reliable), and this is what I found in one of the most trustworthy neurological semiology text books. It was written by Russell N. DeJong, that, along with Brazis, is one of the most respected clinical neurologists of the last century. This is textual (underlines are mine) and is situated in the context of studying language deficits, which is one of the more important side-defining things we do (I hope I'm not infringing copyright here):
"About 90-95% of the population is right-handed. The left cerebral hemisphere is dominant for language in 99% of right handers, and 60% to 70% of left handers. Of the remaining left handers, about half are right hemisphere dominant and about half have mixed dominance.
Shifted sinistrals (anomalous dextrals) are naturally left-handed individuals forced by parents or teachers early in life to function right-handed, primarily for writing. This approach to dealing with left handedness has largely died out, but shifted sinistrals are still encountered, primarily in the older population.
One can therefore encounter right-handed patients (dextrals) who are left-hemisphere dominant for language, left-handed patients (sinistrals) who are still left-hemisphere dominant, "right-handed" patients who are right-hemisphere dominant (anomalous dextrals), and left-handed patients who are right hemisphere dominant (true sinistrals).
Since clinical abnormalities of higher cortical function, especially language, are heavily influenced by dominance, determination of the patient's handedness and dominance status is paramount. Only about 2% of cases of aphasia are due to unilateral right hemisphere lesions.
Cerebral dominance and handedness are at least in part, hereditary. Failure to develop clear hemispheric dominance has been offered as an explanation for such things as dyslexia, stuttering, mirror writing, learning disability and general clumsiness.
Many patients are at least to some degree ambidextrous, and it may be difficult, short of a Wada test, to be certain which hemisphere is language dominant. Various "foolproof" markers of true handedness have been proposed but all are suspect.
In right-handed patients, aphasia will be due to a left hemisphere lesion in 99% of the cases; the other 1% are crossed aphasics. In left handers the situation is much more variable. In one series of left-handed aphasics, 60% had lesions of the left hemisphere.
There may be a degree of mixed dominance for language in non-right-handed individuals. Aphasia may tend to be less severe in left handers and recovery better; just a family history of left handedness in a right-handed aphasic may predict better recovery. Basso has challenged the concept of better recovery in non-right-handed patients."
Campbell WW. DeJong's the neurological examination. 6th Ed. Philadelphia PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2005. pp. 79-80.
Now, a few things to note (and some others to chew on):
- True cross-dominants (people with mixed dominance) are only 15-20% of the left-handed people. That left us with 0.75% to 2% of people in the world.
- When DeJong wrote this, there were no widespread use of computer's mouses and such things, so writing seems to account for most of the "handedness" criteria on this textbook. I wonder if this could be replaced for something else nowadays? Remember how many of us use different hands for different tasks? This leads me to the next point:
- So, in my case my teacher "forced" me to write right-handed, so I'm a Shifted-Sinistral, and I don't know for sure if I am cross dominant or right dominant (the odds have it that I'm instead left-dominant, as about 96%-98.5% of the world is, including 60-70% of the left-handed people). However, while teachers and parents have stopped forcing children to be "right-handed", Can we say the same thing about the rest of the world? I mean, when everything in this world is designed to work with right-handed people in mind (ergonomically designed mouses anyone?), Doesn't this count as "forcing" us to develop right-handed abilities and skills?
- We now have more options than the Wada test, or the Edimburgh handedness inventory. Now we have functional MRI and some other functional imaging studies. This could be important in the event that some of us developed a stroke (knock on wood). However, even on this scenario, we have more chances of better recovery than our right-handed friends, cool, ain't it?