CHAPTER 2 literatire review for handedness and intelligence

7/23/2019 CHAPTER 2 literatire review for handedness and intelligence

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CHAPTER 2

2.0 Introduction

This chapter will be discussing the past literature that had been carry out by various

researchers. Analysis is being carry out by the method, process and result retrieved. The

abstraction from the journals will be the guideline and foundation for the study.

2.1 Darwins evolutionary theory

Darwin had come out with the famous evolutionary theory that proposed that Homo

Sapienwhich indicate human are coming from apes and he also contribute to the psychology

field with the theory of survival of fitness which also known as natural selection (Darwin &

u!ley, "#$% 'illiam, lough, )tanley,& olbert, %*"$+. n "#-", Darwin and eer had

published the Origin of Speciesthat discuss about how human evolve and the birth of natural

selection .Darwin focus about the natural selection that emphasi/e on the deletion of

component that would not benefit the species including genetics (0utuyma, %**#+. The theory

of evolution are broad but in Darwin1s point of view the theory of natural selection is the core

of Darwin1s theory in evolution and it can be connect with other theory in order to e!plain the

phenomenon in living things (Tuomi, "#2"+.

The theory of natural selection had contribute to modern biology that helps to e!plain

the development of organism and it is widely use in science area (Thagard & 0indlay, %**#+.

This indicated that the theory of natural selection actually play an important role in science

area. 3ther than that, 0rit/gerald & 'hitaker (%*"*+ had supported Darwin1s evolutionary

theory that the theory itself had gave the foundation for different field in psychology such as

developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, social psychology, biological psychology,

clinical psychology and behaviorism. This had given a point that even Darwin1s theory is

developed for some time but it still applicable to the conte!t in nowadays. The idea that


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proposed by jorklund & 4ellegrini (%***+ is also supporting Darwin as they had evaluated

the application of Darwin1s theory in child development and it fits the psychological, social

and biological model in psychology. 0ollow by, uss (%**#+ had also interpreted natural

selection as a way or method to solve the problem along life that can be link to our daily life.

This had shown that how broad of Darwin1s theory can be apply in our daily life or different

field but there are still some people who disagree with that.

According to 5lickman (%**#+, Darwin1s theory of evolution had started with natural

selection and se! selection but his idea of evolution are disagree by Alfred 6ussel 'allace

and started debate with pro Darwinism and against Darwinism. Darwin1s theory also being

7uestion in the aspect of sociality that natural selection is seems to be immoral to be apply in

life and contra to the belief of individual (odgson, %**-+.

8evertheless, Darwin1s theory are still widely apply and natural selection later on

contributes to the two important element of this study which are spatial ability and

handedness. 0urthermore, Darwin1s theory had been in cooperated with biology to e!plain

about the genetic and heritability but not wildly apply in social science (6icherson, & oyd,

%*"*+. Darwin1s theory of natural selection had provide a foundation in future research where

linked to both handedness and spatial ability.

2.2Handedness

n "#2", 9arian Annett had conduct a research about handedness and the causes of

different handedness and laterali/ation of brain. 0rom the research she had proposed the idea

of right shift model where there1s a gene call 6): and 6); and these gene are contribute to

the development of brain for different function. This has bring new data about handedness but

Annett1s theory was later critic by other researcher. 9c 9anus ("#2-+, had 7uestion on


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Annett1s right shift model that the purely right;handed and neutral issue that seems to be not

possible as the chances for other handedness is not e!ist.

According to 0aurie, and 6aymond (%**$+, the difference of handedness among theancient cave painting and nowadays are minimal as the proportion of left and right handers

are still pretty much similar. This had given the hint that the variation of handedness started

as early as ancient but still somehow supported Darwin1s theory about heritability. There are

different researches done to investigate about handedness using chimpan/ees and

development of the right shift theory in e!plaining handedness (oesch, "##" Annett %**yung;)eok, >im 9anho, and 4ark )eong;ho (%**


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handed people will had higher risk in developing those disorder. n the contradiction, there

are new research that disagree with the idea of non;right handers are more prom toward

certain schi/ophrenia and stated that female right handers are the population that mostly

affected by the disorder (9ataboge, =oubert, =ordaan, 6eyneke & 6oos, %*"$+.

As the 7uestion of gender rise as the research continue, researcher also found that

female outperform male in the mirror tracing test regardless about the handedness (31oyle,

& off, "#2@ 5rabowska et.al., "##$+. This results had differ from the past research that

support the theory that male are predicted to be outperform female. 4ut aside age and gender

in the research of handedness, the cognitive function seems to be as important as age and

gender could be. n %*"", icario, onni & >och had conduct an e!periment to test the

handedness differences and cognitive functioning. The e!periment being carry out with "$

e7ual participants from both left and right handers that re7uire them to perceive the distance

that appear by the screen that blink in split second and the result had shown that right handers

perform better and the e!periment also linked spatial performance could possibly be one of

the product from different hand preference. This research is well prepare in the aspect of

material of e!periment such as software that keep the e!periment neutral and non;bias. The

application of software had increase the consistency that could be the limitation and by using

the software, it become easier to measure the cognitive function of participant.

2. !"atial a#ility

There is a research done by a group of researcher in "#2*s to test whether the

hormones can affect people in their spatial ability and #" participants are selected for the

e!periment that combine total of si! spatial test ()hute et al, "#2B+. The result of the test

indicated that low androgen male and high androgen female perform better in the e!periment

and further research are re7uested. The research are brought up in e!periment form where


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difference in amount of female and male are not stated, this could be one of the problem but

the used of total si! spatial test to test the spatial ability is one of the brilliant play of the

researcher and this leads to another research that also focus on hormones. The research are

done in the basic of whether testosterone affect the performance of spatial ability with %2

samples that get paid, the result had contra with what )hute1s result and man are able to

perform better in spatial ability (ooven$ habris, Cllison & >osslyn, %**$+. The research

done by ooven et al. had the similar problem with )hute as the sample are very limited that

cannot be generali/e to represent the whole population.

There are also another research done in %*** indicate that women actually can

perform better in spatial ability with the criteria of menstrual cycles along the test. According

ausmann, )labbekoorn, an 5oo/en, & 5ntrkn (%***+, 'omen with higher testosterone

level when they are in menstrual that will help in spatial performance. The test is test by

using mental rotation test and mental rotation test seems to be the key test that most of the

researcher will use in testing spatial ability.

9eanwhile, spatial ability are more common used in research in educational field to

find out what and how spatial ability can be improve or e!plore. A research had been done in

si!th grade student to find out through constructive activities can help to predict spatial

performance and it shown that through the activities it helps to build up the spatial ability,

word solving problem and mathematical skills (oonen, 3ostermeijer, & =olles , %*"$+. The

research about spatial ability does not limit in children there are few research done in

different respective of students such as secondary and higher education. The researches done

had shown that spatial ability are differ among gender and the application of spatial ability

are needed in different stages of learning regardless the level of learning (Tsutsumi,

)chrEocker, )tachel & 'eiss %**- arrera, era & )aorFn, %*"% 0ulmer & 0ulmer, %*"$+.

n certain major such as engineering, spatial ability play an important role for the students to


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visuali/e and understand about the image and spatial ability can be one of the criteria of

engineering students (3nyancha & >insey, %**@ nagy;>ondor & )GrGs, %*"%+.

9oreover, video games are involved in improving spatial ability especially for thosevideo games that in action and driving categories ()ubrahmanyam & 5reenfield, "##$

)pence & 0eng, %*"*+. oth the research had conducted through e!periment with video

games to test the spatial ability of children from grade five to nine and the result indicated

that children spatial ability can be improve by playing video games but girl are still weaker

that boy in those research. This had bring out the issue on gender differences in spatial

ability where there are certain degree of difference in spatial ability among boys and girls.

esides that, age also play a crucial role in spatial ability as the performance of spatial

ability in individual actually better when it is in the young adults compare to older adult

where the researchers did an e!periment with both categories and found out the ()althouse,

9itchell & 4almon, "#2# achini, 6uggiero, 6uotolo & 4i//a, %**2+.These research had

been very helpful in determine the age for the potential participant for this study and the

testing between younger adults and elders make a good comparison for spatial ability

performance because it helps to e!clude elderly as the participant due to aging.

9oving on to another aspect that spatial ability are being research with, handedness

are being introduce. 9illar & Al;Attar (%**B+ had conduct an e!periment that combine the

element of handedness and spatial ability with the idea that handedness might be related to

spatial performance. The e!periment being carry out by using a group of high school student

that consists of eight female and twelve male. The participant are being assign randomly into

two groups with the task that re7uire them to precisely point out the distance and direction by

different hand appoint while being blindfold. The result indicate that there is no significant

differences between handedness and spatial ability and the errors for both hand in performing


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spatial task are e7ually similar. This had shown that the hypothesis of spatial ability is related

to handedness or brain laterali/ation are 7uestionable as the result contra with the hypothesis

2.% !"atial a#ility and handedness

As early as year "#@", Cdgar 9iller are interested in investigating both handedness

and different ability that human can achieve. The e!periment is consists of two dimension

and three dimension form test that test different ability in both %# right handers and %B mi!ed

handers. The result had indicate that 6ight handers score higher in visual spatial test. 0rom

my perspective, this research bring a sense of biasness where the participant only consists of

de!tral and mi!ed handed whereby the sinistral are being left out from the e!periment other

than that, considering the year of the e!periment the procedure and material used was very

good that still a good reference for future study.

After that, there are more researcher set the focus in spatial ability and handedness

where more different e!periment done by using different method such as visual, auditory and

noninterpolated activities to test the laterali/ation of brain and the results indicated that

different handedness had different laterali/ation of brain but fail to prove any further detail of

how handedness and spatial ability are related ()anders, 'ilson, & anderberg, "#2% 8agae,

"#2-+. n another words, different handedness actually in charge of different skill that we can

learn, this give the connection of handedness towards brain function but still cannot fully

e!plain how spatial ability is related to handedness. These research provide insights towards

the e!periment but the problem of holistic data is 7uestionable as the participants used are

just appro!imately -*;


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the survey started with the test of spatial ability and follow by the survey of handedness. The

results indicated that right handers had higher tendency to perform better in spatial

intelligence test compare to left handers but a little bit weak in fle!ibility.

As the technology grows the way of conducting changed as more technical e7uipment

such as the involvement of computer in the e!periment and magnetic resonance imaging

(96+ are used. =oanne Hindsey 4owell (%*""+, had conduct a study by using 96 scan to

test about the spatial ability and handedness where $* left handers and $% right handers

involved. The scan started when participant are re7uired to complete a certain task and found

that left and right handers show different laterali/ation of brain according to the handedness

but ability of people does not restricted to the handedness.

These researches are still in the debate of whether spatial ability and handedness are

related and if in anyways these two variables are related how strong the link between these

two variables are still a 7uestion worldwide.

2.& !"atial a#ility and handedness in Asia conte't

8arrow down the perspective to Asia conte!t, a research have been done by a group

of researchers in hina to find out whether the founding in previous research regarding

spatial ability and handedness from the western culture is align in eastern culture (Tao et.al,

%**#+. The e!periment are being carry out by the help of a software that created both left and

right hand of in screen and the two virtual hand will be rotate in different ways. The left hand

will be rotating to the left whereas the right hand will be rotating inwards participant are

re7uired to answer whether the picture on the screen is left or right hand by click on the

keyboard on the laptop. The result once again had shown no difference between handedness

and spatial ability such as mental rotation. n this research, it had shown that actually there1s


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not much difference between western and eastern culture and once again the appearance of

software as one of the material seems to be very helpful.

9oreover, there1s another research conducted in Turkey to find out the relationship ofhandedness, spatial ability and I. n the research, the researcher had used survey such as the

Cdinburgh andedness Iuestionnaire and also two types of test to test the hand performance

and also spatial performance of participant (Tan, "##*+. The test that used by Tan are the dot

filling test and also attellJs ulture 0air ntelligence Test but the result that Tan found out

contra with what Tao et al. (%**#+ had mention as from Tan1s research he believed that

combine hemispheric actually work better for spatial ability as it can adapt to different

strategies and be fle!ible in the same time.

Cven though there1s not much of research had been carry out in 9alaysia conte!t, but

this become the opportunity for this study to be carry out and figure out the relationship of

spatial ability and handedness in 9alaysia conte!t that can help to provide insight for further

study.

2.( !u))ary

n this chapter, the brief relationship and the factors surrounded two of the variables

are being discuss as handedness are mostly discuss about the debate on which hand are better

in performing certain task while in spatial ability age ,gender and the laterali/ation of brain

are being discussed. The knowledge gap that abstracted from these literature are the

relationship of the spatial ability and handedness in 9alaysia conte!t.


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An ett, 9. ("###+. The theory of an agnostic right shift gene in schi/ophrenia and autism.

Schizophrenia Research,B# "@@;"2%. 6etrieved from httpKLLcogpsy.skku.ac.krLcwb;

dataLdataLarticleL6)Theory.pdf

Annett, 9. (%**


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6etrieved from httpKLLwww.efdergi.hacettepe.edu.trL%**%%%8 COAATP%*P BP2@CT

P$P*8.pdf

ho, =., 4ark, >., >im,9. & 4ark, ). (%**


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ausmann, 9., )labbekoorn, D., an 5oo/en, )..9. & 5ntrkn, 3. (%***+. )e!

hormones affect spatial abilities during the menstrual cycles.Behavioral /euroscience

""$(


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6icherson, 4.=. & oyd, 6. (%*"*+. The Darwin theory of human cultural evolution and gene;

culture coevolution. n 9.A. ell, D.=. 0utuyma, '.0. Canes, and =.).

6ilea, ).H., 6oskos;Cwoldsen, . & oles, D. (%**$+. )e! differences in spatial abilityK Alaterali/ation of function approach. rain and ognition, -


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4owell, =. H. (%*""+. An nvestigation of the Association between andedness, ognition,

rain )tructure and 0unction (Doctoral dissertation, niversity of Hiverpool+.

0rit/gerald, .=. & 'hitaker,9.. (%*"*+. C!amining the acceptance of and resistance toevolutionary psychology. volutionar! ps!cholog!, 2(%+ %2$;%#


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odgson, 5.9. (%**-+. 5enerali/ing darwinism to social evolutionK )ome early attempts.

Journal of economic issues, B#($+ 2##;#"$. 6etrieved from httpKLLwww.geoffrey;

hodgson.infoLuserLimageLgenerali/darwin.pdf

Darwin, ., & u!ley, =. ("#$%+. 1he origin of species ;! means of natural selection or the

preservation of favoure$ races in the struggle for life. HondonK =ohn 9urray.

Annett, 9. ("#2"+. The right shift theory of handedness and developmental language

problems.%nnals of !sle2ia, B"("+, "*B;"%". 6etrieved from

httpKLLlink.springer.com LarticleL"*."**@P%00*%


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Tao, '., Hiu, I., uang, Y., Tao, Y., Wan, =., Teeter, . =., ... & )un, . =. (%**#+. Cffect of

degree and direction of rotation in egocentric mental rotation of handK an event;related

potential study./euroReport,%*(%+, "2*;"2-. 6etrieved from httpKLLwww.

silccenter.orgLbibliographyMpdfsLsunLTaoMetalMrotationMhand.pdf

Tan, Z. ("##*+. 6elation of spatial reasoning ability to hand performance in male and female

left;handers to familial sinistrality and writing hand.International Journal of

/euroscience-B(%;$+ "$B;"--. 6etrieved from httpKLLwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.g

ovLpubmedL%%

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CHAPTER 2 literatire review for handedness and intelligence