Effect of Handedness on Intelligence Levels of Students

Hailey Miranda Biology EEI Mr. T. Quartly

Table of Contents

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………….Pages 3 to 5 Aim…………………………………………………………………………………………………………Page 6Hypothesis………………………………………………………………………………………………Page 6Materials………………………………………………………………………………………………….Page 7Method……………………………………………………………………………………………………Page 7Results……………………………………………………………………………………………………..Pages 8 to 12Discussion………………………………………………………………………………………………..Pages 12 to 15Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………….Pages 16Appendix………………………………………………………………………………………………….Page 17 to 19Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………..Page 20 to 21Annotated Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………..Page 21 to 23Surveys……………………………………………………………………………………………………..Page23 to 28

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Researching the Effect of Handedness and Brain Lateralisation on the Intelligence Levels of Students

Introduction

Introduction 1.1- Definition of Handedness

Handedness is the natural or biological preference for using one hand more than the other when performing special tasks depending on which hemisphere is dominant for the task (Rice, 1998). Usually one hand whether it be left or right, is considered to be dominant, however, in special cases when both hands are used equally and is referred to as ambidexterity. Handedness is not considered to be a discrete variable, right or left, but is a continuous one that can be expressed at different levels between strong left and strong right depending on the motor skill being executed. For example, one may prefer writing with one hand, however can use the other for playing an instrument or playing a sport. Most of the world’s population are considered to be right-handed, and consists of anywhere between 70 and 95% depending on the country and population, whilst left-handed and ambidextrous people make up a median of about 10% across the planet (Barie, 2012).

Introduction 1.2 – Brain Lateralization

The reasons as to why one is right-handed over left-handed or vice versa, has been debated in many research papers over the years. Although, the most likely effect of handedness is brain lateralization. Lateralization is the preference for using one side of the body more than the other; therefore, brain lateralization is the preference of

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using one side of the brain more than the other. The human brain is divided into two major hemispheres connected by the corpus callosum as seen below. (Barie, 2012).

The left hemisphere of the brain (named the contra lateral) controls the activity on the right side of the body and the cerebral hemisphere controls the activity on the left side of the body (Doctionary.com, 2016). A person who is right-handed usually will be left-brained and people who are left-handed would be most likely right-brained. Different skills that are associated with the two different hemispheres are often regulated in one location. The information that is required to perform these tasks are tracked in neuropath ways and stored in the brain. The amount of information and pathways that can be stored in the brain depends on the surface area; therefore, a greater surface area will provide a greater storage area for the ability to be able to perform tasks. This is the reason that a person favours one side of the brain and therefore one hand over the other in normal cases.

Introduction 1.3 – Left and right lobes of the brain

The left hand side of the brain focuses on its approach to tasks in a logical manner, evaluating whether things are sequential or rational and looks at objectives analytically and in parts rather than as a whole. Whereas, a person who is “right-brained” is said to be more intuitive, thoughtful, and subjective and looks at things as a whole. (Aetherforce,

2016). However, there are also numerous cases where a person uses both sides of the brain equally, therefore has equal brain lateralisation. Recent research has shown that abilities in subjects such as math are actually strongest when both halves of the brain work together. Today, neuroscientists know that the two sides of the brain work together to perform a

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wide variety of tasks and that the two hemispheres communicate through the corpus callosum. Therefore, if one’s corpus callosum is strong, the person is likely to be intelligent and do well in logically orientated subjects.

Introduction 1.4 – Looking at the connection equal use of the lobes

“No matter how lateralized the brain can get, though, the two sides still work together. The popular psychology notion of a left brain and a right brain doesn’t capture their intimate working relationship. The left hemisphere specializes in picking out the sounds that form words and working out the syntax of the words, for example, but it does not have a monopoly on language processing. The right hemisphere is actually more sensitive to the emotional features of language, tuning in to the slow rhythms of speech that carry intonation and stress.” (Zimmer, 2015).

In a study conducted by several university students in Utah involving over 1000 recipients, revealed that when their brains were analysed, while activity was sometimes higher in certain important regions, both sides of the brain were essentially equal in their activity on average. This confirms that whilst some brain functions occur in one or the other side of the brain, such as language on the left and attention more on the right, people don’t tend to have a stronger left- or right-sided brain network.

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Aim

The aim of this experiment was to investigate whether a person’s dominant hand had any effect on the intelligence level that they possessed and how well they were achieving in the Maths/Science stream specifically. Similarly, it was also investigated whether the percentage of left-handed people in the top 10 of the class was significantly greater than those who were found to be right-handed in relation to the average percentage of the population who were left-hand dominated over right. If the experiment was proved true by having more left-handed people in the top 10 of the classes and were also found to be right-brained, the theory would be proven that left-handed people are more likely to have a greater intelligence level than right-handed students.

Hypothesis

It was hypothesised that the students in the top 10 in each of the tested classes will either have left-brained dominance or basically equal brain lateralisation. The reason that there would be left-brained dominant cases is because that side of the brain is used for logic and reasoning, a task that is heavily required in the mathematics and science stream. It was also predicted that people who have equal brain lateralization or very similar to it will have achieved in the Maths and Science stream based on the fact that their corpus callosum will be strong and messages will be passed between each lobe quickly and efficiently in comparison to people who have an extremely dominant lobe. Therefore, either right-handed people with either left or equal brain lateralisation as well as left handed people that would have had close to equal brain lateralisation was expected to be evident in the top 10 of the classes. It was also hypothesised that there would be a significantly greater number of left-handed people in the top 10 of the classes than the bottom 10. Finally it is hypothesised that the students in the top 10 of the class will have greater adversity over the different styles of learning than the bottom 10 students.

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Materials

The items for this experiment included:

Constructed survey titled “Right/Left Brain Dominance Test” (See Appendix 1) Constructed survey titled “Audio/Visual/Kinaesthetic Test” (See Appendix 2) Timer Twenty Students who were recognised as within the top ten students in the classes

of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics B and Mathematics C. Twenty Students who were recognised as within the mid to bottom ten out of the

students in the classes Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics B and Mathematics C.

Pens, Black to circle the answers.

Method

The method that was used to carry out this investigation involved gathering the surveys titled “Right/Left Brain Dominance Test” and “Audio/Visual/Kinaesthetic Test”. The ranking of the twelve students from 2015 (year eleven rankings at the end of the year) were compiled for the subjects being tested (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics B and Mathematics C). The students were then organised based on academic excellence and the top twenty students and the bottom twenty students from the subjects were organised based on the results from each subject. The students were then approached and given a survey to complete individually within a given time limit of three minutes, giving a time of approximately one and a half minutes to complete each survey consisting on forty questions, or twenty questions on each survey. The results from the students was then collated into a table and later analysed to find trends and patterns between handedness and brain lateralization in the forty students surveyed.

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Results

The results from both of the surveys were tabulated as shown below:

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Bot 10 Left/Right Handed Students

Left Handed Right Handed

Top 10 Left/ Right Handed Students

Left Handed Right Handed


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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 200

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

Top 10 L/R Brain

Left-brainedRight-brained

Student No.

Stud

ent S

core


The

percentage average of each of the scores was then represented in a pie graph so that the different evaluated sections could be better analysed.

These are shown in comparison to each group below.

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Top 10 AVK Results

Audio VisualKinaethetic

Bottom 10 AVK Results

AudioVisual Kinaesthetic

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 200

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Bottom 10 AVK Test Results

AudioVisual Kinaesthetic

Student No.

Stud

ent

Scor

e

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 200

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Top 10 AVK Test Results

Audio VisualKinaethetic

Student No.

Scor

e of

stud

ents

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 200

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Bottom 10 L/R Brain


Student No.

Stud

ent S

core


The average score for the top 10 group for audio learners involved a score of 8 (Refer to Appendix 3). The average score for visual learners was 4 (Refer to Appendix 4) and the average score for kinaesthetic learners was 7.95 which is approximately a score of 8 (Refer to Appendix 5).

The average score for audio learners in the bottom 10 group was found to be 7.9 which is approximately a score of 8. (Refer to Appendix 6). The average score for visual was 4.25 which is approximately 4 (Refer to Appendix 7) and the kinaesthetic learning group had an average score in the bottom 10 of 7.85 which is approximately 8 (Refer to Appendix 8).

The

average score calculated for left-brained candidates for the top 10 was 10 (Refer to Appendix 9); therefore it can also be assumed that the average score for right-brained people was 10 as the scores are 50% of the whole.

For the bottom 10 left or right-brained test, the average score for left-brained students was 11.8 which is approximately 12 (Refer to Appendix 10) and the average score for right-brained students was found to be 8.6 or a score of approximately 9 (Refer to Appendix 11).

Discussion

Analysing of the Data 2.1

Left and Right Handed Students Analysis

From the results, certain components were able to be dejected to prove the phenomenon of whether handedness and brain lateralization affects intelligence levels within students. As seen in the first pie graphs within the report, it showed that the amount of left-handed students in the top 10 of the classes was significantly greater than those in the bottom 10, in fact six times greater. This already helped in proving that left-handed students have a much greater chance at being more intelligent than right-handed people since their concentration is in the top 10 percentile of the Maths and Science stream. Also, taking into consideration the expected percentage of left-handed people in the population being approximately 10%, it is obviously much greater in the data set being analysed. What was also found to be phenomenal is that the left-handed students actually made up a whopping 30% of all

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Top 10 L/R Brain


Bottom 10 L/R Brain



students in the top 10 of the classes. This is three times greater than expected as an overall group, not just in the top 10, perhaps signalling that left-handed people especially find the Maths and Science stream much easier than they would perhaps, the more literate classes. This could be because of the way that their brain, if found to be lateralized to the right, looks at its objectives as a whole and able to recognise the interconnectedness between parts of things, like linking phenomena to rules and formula. People who are right-brained are also intuitive, meaning that they go with their gut feeling and trust themselves when approaching tasks, which is a skill known to be heavily required in the Maths and Science stream because of all of the foundation rules and formulas that need to be remembered and called upon at any given time.

From the results, it was also found that to be left-handed, a student would have to have a brain which is lateralised to the right as all of the students surveyed that were left-handed were right-brained. However, the more intelligent a left-handed person, the greater their lateralization as observed in the data between the top 10 and bottom 10 of the class. To be considered right-handed, the students were found to possess either equal brain lateralization or hand to be left-brain dominant as no other case was observed. Another trend that could be analysed from the data was that the more intelligent the student, the closer they were to having equal brain lateralization. This could suggest that for the Maths and Science stream, it is more important for students to be right-brain dominant. It also proves that your brain lateralization both predicts what hand you will find to be dominant, but also the likely hood of how intelligent you are likely to be.

Left and Right Brain Dominance Analysis

The first noticeable factor within the left or right brain dominance test is the extremity to which the values in the bottom group peaked at in comparison to the students in the top 10 of the Math and Science stream. Overall, the bottom 10 had many more cases in which the values for being left-brained exceeded the median of 10 by one or more questions in comparison to the other group of students. This indicated strong brain dominance for these particular students who overall where distinctly left-brain dominated. This was expected since all but one of these students was found to be right-handed and supports the research regarding handedness and brain dominance at the beginning of the paper in respect to handedness opposing the dominance where right-handed people would be expected to be left-brain dominated and vice versa. The bottom 10 group ended up being 59% left-brain dominant (Refer to Appendix 12), another 9% or 36 more questions (Refer to Appendix 13) more than the top 10 group who ended up being 50% right and 50% left-brained, overall possessing equal brain dominance. This is an astounding result since it was earlier discovered that having equal brain dominance was much greater than being dominant to one side because of the efficiency of sending messages to each of the lobes for processing. Not only is it more efficient being able to use both lobes when having to be called on to do a variety of tasks, but also proves that the students in the top 10 of the Math and Science

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stream have a much stronger corpus callosum and are equally able to perform tasks that require the processing of both the contra lateral and the cerebral hemisphere, a likely predicament when trying to analyse mathematical puzzles or decipher complex theories in the Sciences’.

Looking at the left-handed students in particular, their scores all resulted so that their brains were particularly right-brain dominant. Unlike the right-handed students, none of the left-handed group had equal brain lateralization; rather they possessed quite high scores using the right hand side of the brain. These results that were obtained indicate that perhaps the students who are left-handed are so because of the dominance in their brain processing. On the other hand, right-handed people in the top 10 were likely to have a score of equal brain lateralization or close to it. This proves that if one were to posses equal or slightly, left-brain dominance, they will be likely to be right-handed and likely to be more intelligent than those who had strong left-brain dominance as indentified in the obtained results. Similarly, if one was to be born with strong right-brain lateralization, it is almost certain that they will be left-handed and more intelligent than those who have slight right-brain lateralization, as shown in the case of the only left-handed person in the bottom 10 of the data.

Audio, Visual and Kinaesthetic Learning Analysis

Concerning the results regarding the form of learning that a student best suits, there was not a massive distinction between the top 10 of the class and the bottom. The most favourable learning style was found to be Kinaesthetic learning, then Audio learning and then a quite substantial margin to Visual learning. The only thing that distinguished a difference between the groups of students was the percentage of the results that each learning style occupied. On the pie graph’s concerning the top and bottom AVK results, it could be identified that whilst similar, the top 10 students, overall, showed more versatility across the learning board in comparison to the bottom 10. The scores achieved by the top 10 students also were closer together in comparison to the bottom 10 where more peaking and larger scores in one particular region occurred. The reason that this may have been so is because when one can learn in an environment where several different teaching styles are constantly being executed, it is important to be able to adapt to these styles so that the information being taught is able to be understood by the brain. Therefore, this proves why the students which were considered to be more intelligent were found to have a wider variety of learning styles which is important when dealing with such subjects which contain constantly varying content and teachers who teach with different styles and methods to each other.

Anomalies from the hypothesis 2.2

The results that were obtained partly supported my hypothesis as the majority of students in the top 10 of the class who were right-handed had either left-brain lateralization or equal brain lateralization. This, however, was not the case for left-handed students as they had

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dominant right-brain lateralization which was not expected in my hypothesis. This became evident though, since the right-hand side of the brain can be used for analysing and deciphering and performing different tasks in comparison to right-handed students. It is therefore proven that the right-hand side of the brain is more important in the Maths and Science stream since people who are right-handed are close if not equally lateralized in the top 10 results and left-handed students are strongly right-brain dominant. The hypothesis was further proven when it was analysed that having equal brain lateralization when right-handed indicated that you were more likely to be intelligent that strongly left-brain dominated students. This further proves that having a strong corpus callosum will ensure that you have a greater intelligence than those who don’t as well as that the messages being transmitted across the lobes is more efficient. Also, the data obtained confirm that both lobes are often required when performing tasks associated in the Maths and Science stream. Once again, the hypothesis was further proven as there were indeed many more people in the top 10 of the class which were left-handed than those students in the bottom 10. The data also supported my hypothesis in that the top 10 of the class had more adversity over teaching styles which is why they were expected to achieve more in schooling.

Adequacy of the data 2.3

Overall, the data that was obtained proved to be extremely adequate and consistent throughout the analysing of all of the different variables. In each of these variables, no outliers were found and an obvious trend was followed such that the different sets of data could be easily interpreted and the differences between them were immediately identifiable. All of the data was also collected within the same time limit and in extremely similar conditions so that no answers could be influenced by anything other than their own initial thoughts. The time limit that was implicated also ensured that the students were not second guessing and went with their initial answer. All of the students were also given the same procedures and warnings at the beginning of the test so that once again, no one would be influenced to chose a particular answer. No clues or indication to what the question meant was given to the students sitting the surveys as their interpretation of the question was what was required for the results. Also, no data was altered or disturbed when computing the results or manipulated in any way to either agree or disagree with my composed hypothesis. However, these results can only justify trends within the Maths and Science and not more literate classes since these subjects and group of students was not tested since it was a completely different array of students.

Refinements to the study and the Effects of the proposed refinements on future experiments 2.4

One of the main refinements that could be made to further improve this investigation is to include a much larger sample space of students to ensure accurate and justifiable data that proves claims without a doubt. Even though the data that was collected contained identifiable trends across the board, a larger sample space would ensure that these trends

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would be consistent over the entire population and not simply one schooling environment in future experiments. Another refinement that could be made is that all of the students that are surveyed could all take the tests at the same time and the exact same conditions to ensure no possible implications could have been made in the collection of the data. Another way which the experiment could be altered to involve a different outcome of results is do use the same procedure but test on people who are ambidextrous and investigate what brain-dominance induces these students to have the ability to use both their left and right hand to perform different tasks. The effect that this would have on future experiments is that the data is likely to vary and a different phenomenon would be investigated as it will look at the use of both hands. It would have also improved upon the experiment if it could be conducted across subjects such as English, Drama, Languages etc. to see how the results would change based on the skills that the subject requires. It would also be interesting to conduct this experiment since a completely different group of students were evident in the other classes not involving Maths and Science. The last refinement that could improve the data collected would be to involve different age groups in the investigation so that the results reflected all students and not just one particular cohort.

Conclusion

The aim of this experiment was to investigate how handedness and brain lateralization affected your intelligence level. Students form the top 10 and the bottom 10 of the Maths and Science stream including the classes Maths B and C, Biology, Chemistry and Physics were surveyed and shown in the results section of this paper. The conducting of this experiment was successful based on the results obtained which demonstrated obvious and identifiable trends across all of the different tested variables. The results obtained from the experiment support that left-handed students were likely to be intelligent based on the high percentage in the top 10 of the classes. It was also proven that the more intelligent a person was found to be, the stronger their corpus callosum. The conclusion that was drawn about the effect of handedness on one’s intelligence level is that the hand that you find to be dominant, as well as your brain lateralization, does in fact have an effect on how intelligent you are going to be based on the results that were obtained in this study.

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Appendix

Appendix 1 –

To see a copy of the“Right/Left Brain Dominance Test” Refer to Page 24 to 25

Appendix 2 -

To see a copy of the survey titled “Audio/Visual/Kinaesthetic Test” Refer to page 26 to 28

Appendix 3 – 11 –

To find the average of any set of data simply add all of the results together and divide by the total number of results.

For example, when calculating the average score of left-brained dominance for the top 10 students of the Maths and Science Stream all students scores are added together and divided by the number of students who took the test, in this case 20.

To show mathematically:

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Top 10 L/RLeft-brained Right-brained

10 108 12

11 910 1011 912 810 10

9 117 13

10 107 139 116 14

10 1012 816 412 810 1010 1010 10

These are the scores accumulated from the surveys, the yellow highlighted sections indicating which participants are left-handed.

To find the average the left-brained scored were added:

10 + 8 + 11 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 10 + 9 + 7 + 10 + 7 + 9 + 6 + 10 + 12 + 16 + 12 + 10 + 10 + 10

= 200 (divided by the total amount of students, 20)

= 10

Therefore, the average score is 10 questions resulting in a left-brained answer. This process was simply repeated for the other sets of data.

Appendix 12-13 –

To find the percentage of something, simply add all values together and divide by the total score and multiply by 100. For example, finding the percentage of left-dominated brains in the bottom 10 results for left or right-brained dominance, simply add the left-brained scores together and divide by the total number of questions multiplied by the total number of participants and then multiplied by 100.

Bottom 10 L/RLeft-brained Right-brained

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12 812 814 615 511 910 1012 810 1014 612 813 713 711 911 910 10

9 1111 913 712 811 9

The Bottom 10 Left or Right-brained data was used to calculate the percentage of left-brianed students.

The scores were added:

12 + 12 + 14 + 15 + 11 + 10 + 12 + 10 + 14 + 12 + 13 + 13 + 11 + 11 + 10 + 9 + 11 + 13 + 12 + 11

= 236 divided by 20 x 20

= 236 divided by 400

=0.59 x 100 to turn it into a percentage

= 59%

Therefore out of the bottom 10, 59% left-brain dominance was shared over the entire group.

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Bibliography and References:

Barie, C. (2016). Handedness: Biological or Socio-cultural?. [online] First Web Papers. Available at: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro05/web1/cbarie.html [Accessed 9 May 2016].

Brandler, W., Morris, A., Evans, D., Scerri, T., Kemp, J., Timpson, N., St Pourcain, B., Smith, G., Ring, S., Stein, J., Monaco, A., Talcott, J., Fisher, S., Webber, C. and Paracchini, S. (2013). Common Variants in Left/Right Asymmetry Genes and Pathways Are Associated with Relative Hand Skill. PLoS Genetics, [online] 9(9), p.e1003751. Available at: http://www.livescience.com/39611-genes-for-handedness-found.html [Accessed 1 May 2016].

Coulson, D. (2016). [online] Available at: http://www.cogsci.ucsd.edu/~ajyu/Teaching/Cogs1_sp11/Lectures/coulson.pdf [Accessed 1 May 2016].

Encyclopedia.com. (2016). handedness Facts, information, pictures | Encyclopedia.com articles about handedness. [online] Available at: http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/handedness.aspx [Accessed 1 May 2016].

entrainment, I. (2016). Hemispheric Dominance Test determine if your left or right brain hemisphere is dominant. [online] Web-us.com. Available at: http://www.web-us.com/brain/braindominance.htm [Accessed 30 Apr. 2016].

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Gilakjani etc., A. (2016). Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic Learning Styles and Their Impacts on English Language Teaching. [online] Macrothink Institute. Available at: http://brainbutter.com.au/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Visual-Auditory-Kinaesthetic-.pdf [Accessed 31 Apr. 2016].

Hemispheric Lateralization. (2015). Boundless. [online] Available at: https://www.boundless.com/physiology/textbooks/boundless-anatomy-and-physiology-textbook/central-nervous-system-12/functional-systems-of-the-cerebral-cortex-121/hemispheric-lateralization-657-10252/ [Accessed 1 May 2016].

Hunt, N. (2016). Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures. By Chris McManus. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0 297 64597 8.. [online] The Human Nature Review. Available at: http://righthandlefthand.com/reviews/RHLH-Human_Nature_Review_12_Dec_2002.pdf [Accessed 28 Apr. 2016].

Indiana.edu. (2016). Handedness and Brain Lateralization. [online] Available at: http://www.indiana.edu/~primate/brain.html [Accessed 1 May 2016].

Media, A. (2016). Human Brain Anatomy and Lateralization of Brain Function, 3D Animation.. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owFnH01SD-s [Accessed 2 May 2016].

Rightleftrightwrong.com. (2016). Right, Left, Right, Wrong! - What is Handedness?. [online] Available at: http://www.rightleftrightwrong.com/what.html [Accessed 1 May 2016].

Rightleftrightwrong.com. (2016). Right, Left, Right, Wrong! - What is Handedness?. [online] Available at: http://www.rightleftrightwrong.com/what.html [Accessed 1 May 2016].

Stout, J. (2016). Brain Lateralization. [online] Theorderoftime.com. Available at: http://www.theorderoftime.com/politics/cemetery/stout/h/brain-la.htm [Accessed 1 May 2016].

Wikipedia. (2016). Handedness. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness [Accessed 1 May 2016].

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Annotated Bibliography:

Source #1:

Barie, C. (2016). Handedness: Biological or Socio-cultural?. [online] First Web Papers. Available at: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro05/web1/cbarie.html [Accessed 9 May 2016].

This source was published in the year of 2005, which means that the information and data may be slightly dated to what the statistics may be today. However, the website was last updated this year, meaning, that the statistics may have also been updated to the results that you would expect to find today. However, even if this site was found to be old, it is important for my study to analyse the trends between then and now which is why it is a useful source. Since the site was a university report, the reliability of the information that it contains would be high. The site also has numerous references meaning that the facts are able to be supported and therefore reliable. The author of this article was a university student. This encourages the reader to believe that they are well educated and even an expert in this field which is why they are studying it. Since it is a paper specifying around Biology, it can also be assumed that they have written other articles on the topic. The fact that the article was published also signifies that this work was put in high regards within the university and therefore has respectable authority. The purpose of this paper was also based on fact and not simply opinion and shows both sides of the argument and is therefore not biased towards the issue and not manipulating facts to support their own claims.

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Source #2:

Ghose, T (2013). Common Variants in Left/Right Asymmetry Genes and Pathways Are Associated with Relative Hand Skill. PLoS Genetics, [online] 9(9), p.e1003751. Available at: http://www.livescience.com/39611-genes-for-handedness-found.html [Accessed 1 May 2016].

Since this source was published extremely recently in the year of 2013, the information within the article is expected to be relevant and accurate to today. The more current the source for my research it is extremely helpful with my research when backing up my claims and my statements. This information includes many quotes and references to other works once again re-enforcing that the context is reliable as it is able to be supported. The author is also once again not showing any bias towards opinions, but is simply stating facts that are scientifically backed up which is why this site is considered to be a reliable source. The author of this paper is a frequent author for this particular science news site as well as obtaining a master's degree in bioengineering from the University of Washington and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California Santa Cruz. The recognition that this author is well educated and knowledgeable in her field, suggests that this article has reliable authority.

Source #3:

Gilakjani etc., A. (2016). Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic Learning Styles and Their Impacts on English Language Teaching. [online] Macrothink Institute. Available at: http://brainbutter.com.au/wp/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Visual-Auditory-Kinaesthetic-.pdf [Accessed 31 Apr. 2016].

This paper was published in the year of 2012 indicating that the information within it is still fairly relatable to the time period now and further proves the accuracy of this document. The more recent knowledge once again supports my research more as it is looking at the current effects of handedness and brain lateralization in students and not the past or future students. This source is extremely reliable as the information is extensive and there are several authors which contributed to the construction of this document. This indicates that no one opinion dominates the paper and the authors, also being at a highly ranked university, are expected to write with facts and not simply opinions. At the end of the paper, there are also numerous references to support what the document is saying and even an approval message expected to by written by a professor. These pieces of information re-enforce the reliability of the source and the authority behind the document. Finally, the entire document is fact based and supported with several accounts of in-text referencing and citations to respected and recently published sources.

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Documents

Effect of Handedness on Intelligence Levels of Students