The effect of the dominant/non-dominant hand and
sex on Fitts’ Law
Kalisvaart, L.
ID: i6215145
Tutorial group 29
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (FHML)
Maastricht University
Course BBS1004
9th March, 2020
1
, 1. Introduction
The sudden appearance of an object in the human visual field activates quick saccadic eye
movements which are an essential component of the human’s behaviour for exploring and
organizing the sensory environment (1). Visually guided arm movements like reaching or
pointing are accompanied by these saccadic eye movements that occur prior to motion of the
arm (2). Hand-eye coordination is the ability to perform hand movements that require visual
spatial perception for coordination (2). Visual spatial perception is mostly conducted through
the eyes when light energy from the environment is observed by the eye and transformed
into electrical signals, transmitted to the nervous system and processed by the primary visual
cortex in the hemispheres (3). The two hemispheres of the brain function interdependently
and each hemisphere is specialized for certain functions which is called hemispheric
specialization (3).
In humans, left and right hands often show robust performance difference that have been
attributed to hemispheric specialization and therefore linked to asymmetric brain function (4).
For right handed individuals the M1 primary motor cortex in the left hemisphere is dominant
for planning skilled movements with the dominant and non-dominant hand while the M1 in
the right hemisphere is responsible for controlling movements of the non-dominant hand (5).
Right-handers typically show right hand superiority in cognitive and motor tasks for instance;
manual aiming, finger sequencing, tapping tasks and throwing (5). For several cognitive and
motor tasks also differences in performance between men and women have been reported
indicating that women perform better on certain tasks than men and vice versa (6). It is
suggested that because of years of hunting and gathering experience men tend to have a
targeting advantage and are more concerned with maintaining a speeded response than with
making accurate movements whereas women are predisposed to a performance advantage
for fine-motor tasks (7).
However, performance differences during tapping tasks do not only occur because of
hemispheric specialization and gender differences but also due to another factor; the index of
difficulty (5). In 1954 Paul Fitts (8) established a simple test in which two targets were placed
and the individuals were asked to tap these two targets at varying distances (A) and target
widths (W). A relationship between the movement time of the finger between the targets
( WA ) was discovered. The following equation was
(performance) and the index of difficulty 2
derived which is known as Fitts’ Law: MT =a+b∗log ( 2 )(8). In this equation a and b are
A
2
W
constants that depend on the choice of input device and are determined by regression
2
sex on Fitts’ Law
Kalisvaart, L.
ID: i6215145
Tutorial group 29
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences (FHML)
Maastricht University
Course BBS1004
9th March, 2020
1
, 1. Introduction
The sudden appearance of an object in the human visual field activates quick saccadic eye
movements which are an essential component of the human’s behaviour for exploring and
organizing the sensory environment (1). Visually guided arm movements like reaching or
pointing are accompanied by these saccadic eye movements that occur prior to motion of the
arm (2). Hand-eye coordination is the ability to perform hand movements that require visual
spatial perception for coordination (2). Visual spatial perception is mostly conducted through
the eyes when light energy from the environment is observed by the eye and transformed
into electrical signals, transmitted to the nervous system and processed by the primary visual
cortex in the hemispheres (3). The two hemispheres of the brain function interdependently
and each hemisphere is specialized for certain functions which is called hemispheric
specialization (3).
In humans, left and right hands often show robust performance difference that have been
attributed to hemispheric specialization and therefore linked to asymmetric brain function (4).
For right handed individuals the M1 primary motor cortex in the left hemisphere is dominant
for planning skilled movements with the dominant and non-dominant hand while the M1 in
the right hemisphere is responsible for controlling movements of the non-dominant hand (5).
Right-handers typically show right hand superiority in cognitive and motor tasks for instance;
manual aiming, finger sequencing, tapping tasks and throwing (5). For several cognitive and
motor tasks also differences in performance between men and women have been reported
indicating that women perform better on certain tasks than men and vice versa (6). It is
suggested that because of years of hunting and gathering experience men tend to have a
targeting advantage and are more concerned with maintaining a speeded response than with
making accurate movements whereas women are predisposed to a performance advantage
for fine-motor tasks (7).
However, performance differences during tapping tasks do not only occur because of
hemispheric specialization and gender differences but also due to another factor; the index of
difficulty (5). In 1954 Paul Fitts (8) established a simple test in which two targets were placed
and the individuals were asked to tap these two targets at varying distances (A) and target
widths (W). A relationship between the movement time of the finger between the targets
( WA ) was discovered. The following equation was
(performance) and the index of difficulty 2
derived which is known as Fitts’ Law: MT =a+b∗log ( 2 )(8). In this equation a and b are
A
2
W
constants that depend on the choice of input device and are determined by regression
2
