van der Meer Audrey, Husby Asmund
Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Laterality. 2006 May;11(3):263-76. doi: 10.1080/13576500500513565.
Cradling is an interactive activity, involving a manual component that is very often an integral part of cradling. Cradling, while doing something else with the free hand, is referred to here as functional cradling. This study examined the relationship between a person's handedness and what arm he or she prefers to use when functionally cradling a baby doll that resembles a newborn infant. A total of 765 participants took part in the experiment, 403 women and 362 men, between the ages of 4 and 86 years. Left- and mixed-handers were actively recruited. The sample consisted of 64.3% right-handed, 24.7% mixed-handed, and 11.0% left-handed participants. The results showed a clear tendency for participants to cradle in their non-dominant arm (p < .001). Furthermore, this tendency increased with age and it was present in both sexes, although significantly stronger in women than in men. On the other hand, experience with young children through younger siblings and/or being a parent did not increase the likelihood to cradle in the non-dominant arm. It is concluded that humans have a clear functional cradling preference for the non-dominant arm because this enables the dominant arm to engage in other tasks. This might also explain why previous studies have reported a universal left cradling bias because a right-handed majority (intuitively) keeps the dominant hand free when cradling.
抱婴儿是一种互动行为，其中包括一个经常作为抱婴儿不可或缺部分的手部动作。在使用空闲的手做其他事情时进行抱婴儿的动作，这里称之为功能性抱婴儿。本研究调查了一个人的用手习惯与在功能性抱婴儿时更倾向使用哪只手臂之间的关系，所抱的是一个类似新生儿的娃娃。共有765名参与者参加了该实验，年龄在4岁至86岁之间，其中403名女性，362名男性。实验积极招募了左利手和混合利手的参与者。样本中右利手参与者占64.3%，混合利手参与者占24.7%，左利手参与者占11.0%。结果显示，参与者明显倾向于用非优势手臂抱婴儿（p < .001）。此外，这种倾向随着年龄增长而增加，且在两性中都存在，不过在女性中比在男性中更为明显。另一方面，通过有弟弟妹妹或自己成为父母而获得的照顾幼儿的经验，并没有增加用非优势手臂抱婴儿的可能性。研究得出结论，人类在功能性抱婴儿时明显更倾向于使用非优势手臂，因为这样能让优势手臂从事其他任务。这也可能解释了为什么之前的研究报告存在普遍的向左抱婴儿的偏好，因为右利手占多数的人（凭直觉）在抱婴儿时会让优势手空闲着。
