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Ambidexterity

forzen

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The concept of left brain and right brain is probably familiar with people. The general concensus is that a person uses the opposite side of his or her brain from his or her hand. This concensus is generally why most people consider left handers to be right brain dominant. With that said, how does ambidexterity affect the functions of the brain? Does training your less dominant hand affect the way your mind works? I ask this because it seems to me that perhaps the coliation between personality type and compentence regarding hand dexterity affect behavior the same way a person with undevelop shadow function behave. Now i say this because people claim that immature personality type are imature because they have not develop their shadow functions. Now my question is:

Can the training of a person's less dominant hand affect her/his perception/behavior? And if your ambidexterious, do you feel your mind works faster than most people? Feedback/insult/jokes would be appreciated.:D
 

forzen

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Have you tried writing with your left hand? Maybe your a natural left hander. Try writing with your left hand for a month and get back with me with your result :D.
 

sofmarhof

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"Brain function lateralization is evident in the phenomena of right- or left-handedness and of right or left ear preference, but a person's preferred hand is not a clear indication of the location of brain function. Although 95% of right-handed people have left-hemisphere dominance for language, only 18.8% of left-handed people have right-hemisphere dominance for language function."

Lateralization of brain function - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 

forzen

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"Brain function lateralization is evident in the phenomena of right- or left-handedness and of right or left ear preference, but a person's preferred hand is not a clear indication of the location of brain function. Although 95% of right-handed people have left-hemisphere dominance for language, only 18.8% of left-handed people have right-hemisphere dominance for language function."

Lateralization of brain function - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yes, i know what wikipedia says, but i'm more interested in what you think about it ;). Left handed people encounter right handed people more often, so they are force to develop the left-hemisphere of the brain thus becoming more adept with it. This is the same concept with left handed people being adept with their right hand because most tools are built for right handed people.
 

Walking Tourist

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I have no dominance at all. I generally write with my right hand but can write with my left hand or with both simultaneously. It is a good party trick. I crochet left handed but cannot do that right handed.
It's hard to tell how being ambidextrous has affected my thought process, except that I have one heck of a time telling left from right. If you'd like to ask me questions, I'd be happy to answer.
 

forzen

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I have no dominance at all. I generally write with my right hand but can write with my left hand or with both simultaneously. It is a good party trick. I crochet left handed but cannot do that right handed.
It's hard to tell how being ambidextrous has affected my thought process, except that I have one heck of a time telling left from right. If you'd like to ask me questions, I'd be happy to answer.

Well since your a natural ambidexterious, i wouldn't able to make any theory since there's no benchmark. Although, you could tell me if you favor thinking creatively or logically?
 

forzen

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Well. I'm left-handed. I'm creative. I'm not convinced that there is a causal relationship.

I didn't say there was any, i'm just basing it on the general assumption. The fact is creativity is hard to describe since its based on the human perception. A person's creativity has no foundation or benchmark to compare because the defination of creativity differs from person to person.
 

Fidelia

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I'm a lefty, but with strong preference for right-handed scissors, throwing right-handed and chopping vegetables etc right-handed. I have played violin since early high school and bowing has developed my right hand dexterity considerably, although I certainly would not be comfortable writing with my right hand.

I have not noticed a particular difference in it affecting personality or brain function.
 

forzen

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I'm a lefty, but with strong preference for right-handed scissors, throwing right-handed and chopping vegetables etc right-handed. I have played violin since early high school and bowing has developed my right hand dexterity considerably, although I certainly would not be comfortable writing with my right hand.

I have not noticed a particular difference in it affecting personality or brain function.

Since when did you start using your right hand? If it was at a young age, you probably wouldn't be self reflecting. Also, able to throw with your right hand comportably as well as chop vegetables sounds like you been using your right hand considerably, probably because of the abundant of right handed items. Therefore, starting violin and archery would not really affect your behavior since you're already used to using your right hand and wouldn't know the behavior changes since you would think its normal.
 

Valiant

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I learned how to write with my right hand, but I have never ever had a nice handwriting.
Maybe I should consider trying to go left... My left hand is slightly stronger and steadier and I do many things like left-handed people do. But, there are still some things I prefer to do right-handed.

Here's a small list over things I do left-handed:
1. Eat with knife and fork
2. Play flute
3. I shoot better with both rifles and pistols if I hold them left-handed
4. This might sound stupid, but if I am in a situation where I need to react explosively, like a fight, my left arm or leg reacts quicker. I don't know this through extensive barfighting, but from MMA, Jujutsu and karate training.

My father has the exact same thing, he received lots of flak for eating with the "wrong hand" in school, and learned to write with the right hand because left-handedness was considered an ugly thing back then.
I never got any flak, but I never actually thought about it while I was in the process of learning how to write. The instructions were given right-handed, so I did it like that.
Maybe I need to re-learn.
I really hate writing by hand since it looks so goddamn ugly, and it won't get better no matter how much I try to make it look nice.
Everything is very well-written and such, but it looks like the scribbles of an eight year old if I don't put enormous effort into making every single letter acceptably good.
 
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forzen

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I'm a left-brainer.
I learned how to write with my right hand, but I have never ever had a nice handwriting.
Maybe I should consider trying to go left... My left hand is slightly stronger and steadier and I do many things like left-handed people do. But, there are still some things I prefer to do right-handed.

Here's a small list over things I do left-handed:
1. Eat with knife and fork
2. Play flute
3. I shoot better with both rifles and pistols if I hold them left-handed
4. This might sound stupid, but if I am in a situation where I need to react explosively, like a fight, my left arm or leg reacts quicker. I don't know this through extensive barfighting, but from MMA, Jujutsu and karate training.

My father has the exact same thing, he received lots of flak for eating with the "wrong hand" in school, and learned to write with the right hand because left-handedness was considered an ugly thing back then.
I never got any flak, but I never actually thought about it while I was in the process of learning how to write. The instructions were given right-handed, so I did it like that.
Maybe I need to re-learn.
I really hate writing by hand since it looks so goddamn ugly, and it won't get better no matter how much I try to make it look nice.
Everything is very well-written and such, but it looks like the scribbles of an eight year old if I don't put enormous effort into making every single letter acceptably good.

Haha, i learned to write with my left hand, because i was curious of the changes regarding my cognitive funtion. I did felt some changes, but i am unable to describe it. I did notice a change in my ability to draw and an improvement of my handwriting with my dominant hand. Maybe i'm just overthinking it, i'm weird that way.
 

Walking Tourist

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My dad was forced to use his right hand for writing when he was a kid. He does everything else left handed.
One of my sisters is left handed.
I am right handed but can switch hands on a lot of tasks... I crochet left handed, etc.
My other two sisters are strongly right handed.
My mom is right handed.
What does this say to you?
 

Tallulah

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I had a friend who was ambidextrous with writing, and it fascinated me that she had two disctinct handwritings. When I try to write with my left hand, I notice that I try to make the letters like I would with my right. With her, it looked like the handwriting of two different people.
 

Eye 'n' Teepee

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I'm right hand dominant but left eye dominant. I'm not sure if this counts as ambidexterity...it's called "cross lateralization" or something like that.
 

Ardea

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I can write on a white/chalk board with my left...

It is confusing to write with both at the same time.

HURRAY!
 

sofmarhof

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I do everything with my left hand, except use a computer mouse/trackpad. I got used to using a right-hard mouse, and somehow that meant that once I got a trackpad, I had to do that with my right too.

I keep my fork in my left hand, and my knife in my right. I think this is considered the "European" way, so I am supper classy. I don't know if Euros do fork right/knife left or knife right/fork left... the point is this is in contrast to the "American" way, which is eat with your fork in your right hand, then switch to fork left/knife right when you want to cut... basically failing at any semblance of ambidexterity.
 

Fidelia

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Since when did you start using your right hand? If it was at a young age, you probably wouldn't be self reflecting. Also, able to throw with your right hand comportably as well as chop vegetables sounds like you been using your right hand considerably, probably because of the abundant of right handed items. Therefore, starting violin and archery would not really affect your behavior since you're already used to using your right hand and wouldn't know the behavior changes since you would think its normal.

I think I always had weirdly specific preferences for right or left hand, depending on the activity. Some of my right handed things have to do with the implements being designed for righties (ie scissors). I batted lefty though when I played baseball and would should lefty for hockey. Golfing would be fairly ambi, with a slight lefty preference. I can't get used to using a mouse on the left side.

The bowing I referred to was using a violin bow rather than the archery type. (Sorry, sometimes I forget and use language that could be misconstrued by non violin people!). I still am very clumsy using a toothbrush with my right hand, although better than I once was. I cannot write very well with my right hand, although I can quite comfortably handwrite backwards with my left hand.
 

Kingfisher

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i am very dominantly right-handed. i have some minor nerve damage in my left hand that prevents me from very fine and small movements, but i was dominantly right-handed long before my left was injured.
so i do just about everything with my right.
oh, in basketball i dribble and pass very well with my left hand, but better of course with my right.

I keep my fork in my left hand, and my knife in my right. I think this is considered the "European" way, so I am supper classy. I don't know if Euros do fork right/knife left or knife right/fork left... the point is this is in contrast to the "American" way, which is eat with your fork in your right hand, then switch to fork left/knife right when you want to cut... basically failing at any semblance of ambidexterity.

do most americans really switch hands? i am from the United States, but i have never really paid attention to how people eat. i hold the knife in left and fork in right and never switch hands with them. i would assume that people who eat lots of steaks learn to eat this way. :D

I can write on a white/chalk board with my left...

It is confusing to write with both at the same time.

my wife used to have a psychology professor who could write 2 different long and complex paragraphs at the same time, one with each hand - AND lecture out loud WHILE he was doing it!! i got to see him in action. it really blew my mind. i would never have believed such a thing was possible, it seems way to farfetched to me. but i saw him do it, and it is amazing. :shock:
 
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