ABSTRACT

Increased rates of atypical handedness are observed in neurotypical individuals who are low-performing in mathematical tasks as well as in individuals with special educational needs, such as dyslexia. This is the first investigation of handedness in individuals with Mathematical Learning Difficulties (MLD). We report three new studies (N = 134; N = 1,893; N = 153) and two sets of meta-analyses (22 studies; N = 3,667). No difference in atypical hand preference between MLD and Typically Achieving (TA) individuals was found when handedness was assessed with self-report questionnaires, but weak evidence of a difference was found when writing hand was the handedness criterion in Study 1 (p = .049). Similarly, when combining data meta-analytically, no hand preference differences were detected. We suggest that: (i) potential handedness effects require larger samples, (ii) direction of hand preference is not a sensitive enough measure of handedness in this context, or that (iii) increased rates of atypical hand preference are not associated with MLD. The latter scenario would suggest that handedness is specifically linked to language-related conditions rather than conditions related to cognitive abilities at large. Future studies need to consider hand skill and degree of hand preference in MLD.

摘要

在数学任务表现不佳的神经典型个体以及有特殊教育需求（如阅读障碍）的个体中，观察到非典型惯用手的发生率增加。这是对数学学习困难 (MLD) 个体的惯用手习惯的首次调查。我们报告了三项新研究（N  = 134；N  = 1,893；N  = 153）和两组荟萃分析（22 项研究；N  = 3,667）。当使用自我报告问卷评估惯用手时，未发现 MLD 和典型成就 (TA) 个体之间的非典型手部偏好存在差异，但在研究 1 中，当书写手作为惯用手标准时，发现存在差异的微弱证据（p = .049)。同样，当元分析组合数据时，没有检测到手部偏好差异。我们建议：（i）潜在的手习惯影响需要更大的样本，（ii）在这种情况下，手偏好的方向不是衡量左手习惯的足够敏感的指标，或者（iii）非典型手偏好率的增加与 MLD 无关。后一种情况表明，惯用手与语言相关的条件特别相关，而不是与认知能力相关的条件。未来的研究需要考虑 MLD 中的手部技能和手部偏好程度。