Hand Preference and Hand Ability: Evidence from studies in Haptic Cognition

259 Pages·2013·1.75 MB·English

by  Miriam Ittyerah

Hand Preference and Hand Ability
Advances in Interaction Studies (AIS)
Advances in Interaction Studies (AIS) provides a forum for researchers to present
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of knowledge in the field of interaction studies. The book series accompanies the
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Editors
Kerstin Dautenhahn Angelo Cangelosi
The University of Hertfordshire University of Plymouth
Editorial Board
Henrik Christensen Chrystopher L. Nehaniv
Georgia Institute of Technology University of Hertfordshire
Harold Gouzoules Stefano Nolfi
Emory University CNR, Rome
Takayuki Kanda Pierre-Yves Oudeyer
ATR, Kyoto INRIA, Bordeaux
Tetsuro Matsuzawa Irene M. Pepperberg
Kyoto University Harvard University & Brandeis University
Giorgio Metta Kerstin Severinson Eklundh
IIT, Genoa KTH, Stockholm
Adam Miklosi Stefan Wermter
Eötvös Loránd University University of Hamburg
Robert W. Mitchell
Eastern Kentucky University
Volume 5
Hand Preference and Hand Ability. Evidence from studies in Haptic Cognition
by Miriam Ittyerah
Hand Preference
and Hand Ability
Evidence from studies in Haptic Cognition
Miriam Ittyerah
Institute of Communicative and Cognitive Neuroscience, India
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
the American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ittyerah, Miriam.
Hand Preference and Hand Ability : Evidence from studies in Haptic Cognition /
Miriam Ittyerah.
p. cm. (Advances in Interaction Studies, issn 1879-873X ; Volume 5)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Touch. 2. Hand. 3. Left- and right-handedness. I. Title.
BF275.I88 2013
152.3’35--dc23 2013018483
isbn 978 90 272 0459 2 (Hb ; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 7164 8 (Eb)
© 2013 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
Table of contents
Preface ix
chapter 1
Ways of knowing 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Ways of knowing 2
1.3 Perception 3
1.4 Action 7
1.5 Language 13
1.6 Reading with fingers 17
1.7 Sensory modes of concept attainment 19
1.8 Queries and concern 22
1.9 Evolution of lateralization 24
1.10 Right and left hemisphere advantages 26
1.11 Evolution of handedness 29
1.12 Advantages of laterlization 30
chapter 2
Hand 35
2.1 Fundamental grips 37
2.2 Grasping behaviour 39
2.3 Development of manual dexterity 43
2.4 Role of vision in hand actions 45
2.5 Experimental treatments that assess the role of vision 46
2.5.1 Restricted rearing 46
2.5.2 Reafference studies 47
2.5.3 Perceptual rearrangement 48
2.6 Eye- hand coordination 50
2.7 Reaching without vision 53
2.8 Is pointing guided by vision? 56
2.9 Hand preference 59
chapter 3
Hand and brain 67
3.1 Vertebrate lateralization 67
3.2 Lateralization of object recognition 68
i Hand Preference and Hand Ability
3.3 Somatosensory asymmetry 71
3.4 Left and right: Brain and hand 73
3.5 Dissociation of thought and action 76
3.6 Effect of delay in thought and action 82
3.7 Role of vision in hand actions 85
Absolute error 88
Constant errors 88
Variable errors 89
3.8 The hand as a frame of reference 95
3.9 Sensorimotor interface 96
3.10 Handedness and species differentiation 99
chapter 4
Tactile cognition 103
4.1 Sensitivity 103
4.2 Perceiving weights and temperatures 105
4.3 Touch receptors and neural pathways 106
4.4 Inter-sensory integration 107
4.5 Unity of the senses 109
4.6 Studies with blind subjects 113
4.7 Haptic cognition 116
4.8 Multimodal spatial interactions 120
4.9 Three dimensional shapes 121
4.10 Do the hands differ in haptic cognition? 132
4.11 Millar’s reference hypothesis 134
4.12 Is vision necessary for haptic perception? 137
chapter 5
Hand and skill 145
5.1 Developing motor skills 150
5.2 Hand preferences differ from hand ability 152
5.3 Hand ability 159
Sorting task 164
Finger dexterity test 164
Minnesota rate of manipulation test 164
Sorting task 166
Stacking task 166
Outcome of practice 167
Sorting task 168
Table of contents ii
Stacking task 169
Finger dexterity task 170
Manipulation task 171
5.4 Implications of hand ability 175
Epilogue 185
References 193
Author index 235
Subject index 243

Preface
This book is product of my learning over the years since my doctoral work at the
University of Delhi and subsequent post doctoral research at the Department of
Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. I had the good fortune of working
with Susanna Millar at Oxford University during which time I learnt much about
haptic processing. We demonstrated movement imagery in congenitally blind
children in the total absence of vision and verbal mediation. I realized it was nec-
essary to work with blind children or adults to know tactile processing, because
the experience of sighted blindfolded subjects who participated as controls during
experiments, were not devoid of visual experiences, particularly visual imagery.
An important aspect of haptic processing is the use of the hands for feeling
the shape, size, contour or texture of an object. This in itself generated an interest
in hand preference and the need to know if the preferred hand is the skilled hand.
I considered it interesting to test the hand preference of blind children because
most blind children read Braille with both hands. If Braille is read successfully
with both hands, then the assumption that the preferred hand is the skilled hand
may be questioned. My study in the subject of handedness in Neuro Psychology
demonstrated hand brain relationships of tactile recognition of objects and pro-
prioception for the first time in the total absence of vision. Studies with congeni-
tally blind children over time revealed, that although one may have a preferred
hand, the hand ability of the preferred and non preferred hands may not differ and
therefore general laterality does not affect ability.
Interest in haptic processing continued as I worked with Lawrence E Marks at
the John B Pierce Laboratory, Yale University. We designed experiments to show
haptic processing mostly incorporated spatial and movement factors that are not
affected by verbal mediation. Collaborations with Yves Rossetti and his team from
INSERM, Lyon, France, at Delhi University investigated pointing with the left and
right hands to immediate and delayed instructions in the total absence of vision.
Findings revealed that differences between the hands were in the orientation they
adopted during performance. The accuracy of the preferred hand was an out-
come of its context related orientation, whereas the non preferred hand adopted
an egocentric orientation, and was therefore less accurate. Even then, each hand
demonstrated a potential ability to perform.
All this learning helped to conceive the idea of a book on the subject. Dur-
ing my visit at the Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio, Italy, I wrote an outline for