Dominant hand/eye

[Arch]

I guess we all know if we're left or right handed. How many of you know which is your dominant eye? If you don't you find out this way:

With both eyes open, point at something specific. Now, stay pointing, close one eye and then the other (yes, you open the first one! ). In one case your finger is still pointing at the object, in the other, it'll seem to have moved off target. The one for which it stays is your dominant eye. It won;t necessarily be the same as your dominant hand.

Talking to a flint knapping expert a while ago, he said he wondered whether people with the same hand/eye had better coordination (for doing things like striking a flake off a stone) - he'd never really had the time or sample size to test his theory. I'm just interested to know how many of us match up (I'm left/left) and whether we feel we have good hand eye coordination or not... I think I do, and my first flint knapping attempt suggested that I could hit a flake quite accurately. Magnatom seems to be a bit of brain specialist - any thoughts on the hand/eye coordination theory?

Finally, something I've wondered about for a while, but not been able to test on a large scale (I did try it back on C+, so bear with me if you answered then, and do it again for me.)

Either draw, or imagine you are drawing, something like a horse, or a dog or a bike or car even, in profile, without thinking too much. Do you tend to draw it facing left, or right? And which is your dominant hand/eye?

 

[summerdays]

Hmm - don't know what conclusions you will draw from it ... but I'm right-handed, left eye dominant, and the dog would face left.

Never done flint knapping so can't comment on my expertise at that. I think my hand eye co-ordination is fine but sometimes I worry about my eye leg co-ordination ... always bumping into things (with or without alcohol).

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Right handed, right eyed and I always draw lorries (I used to do little cartoons involving 2CVs and trucks) going from right to left. Does that help?

 

[Alcdrew]

Interesting, I all ways thought your dominant eye would be on your dominant hand side, just makes sense. But any way...

Right handed, right eyed, a car going left. I would say I have average hand eye coordination.

 

[Arch]

Right handed, right eyed and I always draw lorries (I used to do little cartoons involving 2CVs and trucks) going from right to left. Does that help?

I'll let you know when I have a decent sample size!

If you haven't flintknapped (and most of us haven't, I realise), think about how well you can hit a nail with a hammer or something like that.

 

[radger]

I don't need to test this. I can't actually focus with my right eye, so my depth perception and peripheral vision on the right side are completely rubbish. I'm right handed though.
I can hit nails with hammers no problem - it's always been an issue so I have learned to compensate. I tend to play sports like tennis left-handed though, as this improves my game.

I always draw animals facing left, but bikes facing right.

 

[magnatom]

Magnatom seems to be a bit of brain specialist - any thoughts on the hand/eye coordination theory?

Not really my area. I mostly do clinical work and research and none of my research has involved coordination.

As I mentioned before we all use all of our brains and are not more left or right sided however, certain functions can be dominant in certain sides and this can vary from person to person. A good example is language. The majority of us process our language on the left hemisphere of the brain (brocas area and wernicks area for example), however about 10% or so do so on the left. There appears to some connection with handedness, because if your are left handed there is a greater chance that your language processing will be on the right.

There was a very interesting paper a while back that actually linked your language dominance to the direction that your hair whorls and your language dominance. To quote from the paper

Subjects with a clockwise hair-whorl orientation display a strong left-language dominance, whereas subjects with an anti-clockwise hair-whorl have a greater variability in cerebral language activation.

So which way does your hair whorl?

Obviously you have no language skills of you are bald


P.S. For anyone interested the paper is: Association between scalp hair-whorl direction and hemispheric language dominance. Weber et al. Neuroimage 2005: 30: 539

 

[Aperitif]

Left/left

Horse/dog = right facing, except that I usually draw dogs sitting down looking slightly (bemused?)left.

 

[Arch]

So which way does your hair whorl?

My hair usually looks like I've been dragged through a hedge backwards in a gale, so I have no idea!

 

[magnatom]

My hair usually looks like I've been dragged through a hedge backwards in a gale, so I have no idea!

It's that little area at the top and back of your head where appears to go around in a circle. It's not easy to look at without a friend or a couple of well placed mirrors!!

 

[rich p]

Hmm - don't know what conclusions you will draw from it ... but I'm right-handed, left eye dominant, and the dog would face left.

QUOTE]

Same for me

Oh, and 99 change hands if that helps

 

[Haitch]

Right handed, right eyed and the dog is facing right.

 

[Fnaar]

Left-handed (though not for everything...), right-footed at footy (another variable that could be experimented on...), left-eye dominant, the dog faces left, the hair whorls anti-clockwise (says my colleague*) and I'm good at languages...

*colleague wondering wtf I got her to tell me which way my hair circulates...can't say it was summat to do with a cycling forum...currently I think she might think I was making a pass at her, in an odd kind of way...

 

[magnatom]

*colleague wondering wtf I got her to tell me which way my hair circulates...can't say it was summat to do with a cycling forum...currently I think she might think I was making a pass at her, in an odd kind of way...

Nows your chance to run your hand through her hair

 

[Fnaar]

Nows your chance to run your hand through her hair

Now you've put the idea in my head, she's kinda 'presentable'....