Todd Brenda K, Banerjee Robin
a Department of Psychology , City University London , London , UK.
b School of Psychology , University of Sussex , Brighton , UK.
Laterality. 2016;21(1):12-33. doi: 10.1080/1357650X.2015.1059434. Epub 2015 Aug 28.
The maternal preference to hold infants on the left rather than right side of the body was examined longitudinally, with attention to 4 explanations: maternal monitoring of infant state, maternal handedness, infant proximity to the mother's heartbeat, and preferred infant head position. The side and site of holding were measured over the first 12 weeks of the lives of 24 infants. Information about group and individual consistency in holding side allowed novel evaluation of the theories. A strong bias to hold on the left dropped below significance when the infants were aged 12 weeks and was limited to specific holding positions. Findings were generally consistent with the monitoring hypothesis, and little support was found for the 3 alternative explanations.
纵向研究了母亲倾向于将婴儿抱在身体左侧而非右侧的情况，并关注了四种解释：母亲对婴儿状态的监测、母亲的利手性、婴儿与母亲心跳的接近程度以及婴儿偏好的头部位置。在24名婴儿生命的前12周内测量了抱婴儿的侧别和位置。关于抱婴儿侧别的群体和个体一致性的信息使得能够对这些理论进行新的评估。当婴儿12周大时，强烈的左侧抱持偏好不再显著，且仅限于特定的抱持姿势。研究结果总体上与监测假说一致，而对其他三种解释的支持很少。
