No link between handedness and spatial navigation: evidence from over 400 000 participants in 41 countries

P Fernandez-Velasco; A Coutrot; H Oloye; J M Wiener; R C Dalton; C Holscher; E Manley; M Hornberger; H J Spiers

doi:10.1098/rspb.2023.1514

No link between handedness and spatial navigation: evidence from over 400 000 participants in 41 countries

Proc Biol Sci. 2023 Oct 11;290(2008):20231514. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2023.1514. Epub 2023 Oct 11.

Authors

P Fernandez-Velasco^{1

2

3}, A Coutrot⁴, H Oloye^{5

6}, J M Wiener⁷, R C Dalton⁸, C Holscher⁹, E Manley^{10

11}, M Hornberger¹², H J Spiers¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Behavioural Neuroscience, Department of Experimental Psychology, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, UK.
² Department of Philosophy, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.
³ Department of Philosophy, University of York, York, UK.
⁴ LIRIS, CNRS, University of Lyon, Lyon, France.
⁵ Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London, UK.
⁶ Centre of Medical Imaging Computing, Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering Sciences, University College London, London, UK.
⁷ Department of Psychology, Ageing and Dementia Research Centre, Bournemouth University, Poole, UK.
⁸ Department of Architecture and Built Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
⁹ ETH Zurich, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland.
¹⁰ Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, London, UK.
¹¹ School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK.
¹² Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.

Abstract

There is an active debate concerning the association of handedness and spatial ability. Past studies used small sample sizes. Determining the effect of handedness on spatial ability requires a large, cross-cultural sample of participants and a navigation task with real-world validity. Here, we overcome these challenges via the mobile app Sea Hero Quest. We analysed the navigation performance from 422 772 participants from 41 countries and found no reliable evidence for any difference in spatial ability between left- and right-handers across all countries. A small but growing gap in performance appears for participants over 64 years old, with left-handers outperforming right-handers. Further analysis, however, suggests that this gap is most likely due to selection bias. Overall, our study clarifies the factors associated with spatial ability and shows that left-handedness is not associated with either a benefit or a deficit in spatial ability.

Keywords: cross-cultural; education; handednesses; navigation; spatial cognition.

MeSH terms

Functional Laterality*
Humans
Middle Aged
Spatial Navigation*