Categorical versus coordinate spatial tasks rely differentially on the left versus right hemisphere. Given the neuroanatomical and neurophysiological differences between inconsistent- versus consistent-right-handers (ICH versus CRH, respectively), such that the former demonstrates increased access to right hemisphere processes relative to the latter, it was hypothesized that ICH would outperform CRH on a test of coordinate spatial knowledge. Previous work demonstrating reliance on the right hemisphere for both categorical and coordinate information in non-right-handers using lateralized stimuli of brief duration suggested ICH might also outperform CRH on a categorical task as well. Participants navigated a virtual environment, landmark-to-landmark, within a 3-dimensional first-person point of view with high ecological validity, and then were tested on either their categorical or coordinate spatial knowledge. ICH were superior relative to the CRH on both types of spatial knowledge. Additionally, ICH navigated the environment during learning more quickly, and reported being more confident in their knowledge of the location of landmarks within the environment, compared with CRH. Results are discussed in terms of potential handedness differences in spatial ability generally.

分类空间与坐标空间任务不同地依赖于左半球和右半球。考虑到右撇子不一致和右撇子之间的神经解剖学和神经生理学差异（分别为ICH和CRH），使得前者相对于右半球表现出更多的进入右半球过程的能力，因此假设ICH在测试中将胜过CRH协调空间知识。先前的研究表明，在短期使用偏侧刺激的非右撇子者中，右半球的分类信息和坐标信息都依赖于右半球，这表明ICH在分类任务上也可能胜过CRH。参加者在具有高生态有效性的3维第一人称视角下浏览了从地标到地标的虚拟环境，然后对它们的分类或协调空间知识进行测试。在两种类型的空间知识上，ICH均优于CRH。此外，与CRH相比，ICH在学习过程中可以更快地在环境中导航，并且据报道对他们对环境中地标位置的了解更有信心。通常根据空间能力的潜在惯用性差异来讨论结果。