Bilateral transfer across ages 7 to 17 years.

The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of age on bilateral transfer. 96 girls, ages 7 to 17 yr., performed 14 trials on a rotary pursuit tracking task (45 rpm, 30-sec. trials, 10 sec. between trials). Half of the subjects performed the first seven trials with the preferred hand, using the nonpreferred hand on the subsequent seven trials. The order was reversed for the other subjects. There were no significant differences between groups in initial scores or in increases in time on target over the first seven trials, supporting the hypothesis that this was a novel task. There was an increase in time on target across ages and age influenced bilateral transfer, with older girls profiting more from the other-hand practice. Transfer was greater from preferred to nonpreferred than the reverse.