Aiming in adults: Sex and laterality effects

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to twofold: to investigate gender-related differences in the asymmetry of aiming with the preferred and non-preferred hand in right-handed adults, and to examine the effect of the spatial requirements of the task on these asymmetries. The hypothesis was that if cognitive functions are more asymmetrically localised in men than in women, one should observe greater left-right differences on some variables in men than in women. Eleven men and eleven women were required to aim fast and accurately at one of three possible targets under a choice reaction time protocol. Performance and kinematics data were analysed. Results revealed an effect of target location on the left hand advantage in reaction time, and gender-related effects on movement time, accuracy, and on the velocity profiles. Overall, women performed more slowly and accurately than men. This gender-related effect could not be accounted for by differential strategies with regard to speed or accuracy, lending support to the idea that differences exist in the neural mechanisms of movement control between the two genders. Finally, although the results show a hand effect on terminal accuracy in men only, they do not support the hypothesis of a greater asymmetry of movement control in men.

The Effects of Panel Location, Target Size, and Gender on Efficiency in Simple Direct Manipulation Tasks

“…What is more, for the right placed panels men outperformed women in both bottom and top panel locations, so the interaction did not exist. Taking into consideration only the right locations, the present research outcomes to some extent support the assumption that men do better where the task accomplishment time is evaluated (Ives et al, 1993;Peters & Campagnaro, 1996;Warshawsky-Livne & Shinar, 2002;Barral & Debû 2004;Rohr, 2006aRohr, , 2006b. But the differences are not statistically significant (df = 1, W = 1.34, p = 0.247).…”

“…When the discrepancies in accomplishing simple pointing activities are concerned, it is assumed that they are a result of different strategies used by both sexes. According to this approach, women perform better when the accuracy is analysed, while men are superior in tasks, where completion time is of a great concern (Ives et al, 1993;Peters & Campagnaro, 1996;Warshawsky-Livne & Shinar, 2002;Barral & Debû 2004;Rohr, 2006aRohr, , 2006b. As it was outlined above, there has been a significant amount of research regarding gender differences in performing cognitive and motor tasks separately, however the studies treating these two conditions simultaneously are hardly to find.…”

Comparing the Effect of Fatigue on Choice Reaction Time of Healthy Men and Women

“…In this regard, this study result was consistent with studies conducted by Nasiri, Abdi, and Dykiert who stated that adult men and women act equally with respect to the choice reaction time [26][27][28]. However, this finding was not in line with findings of a number of studies that show a better choice reaction time in women as compared with men [29][30][31][32]. The reason for contradiction of these findings can be the nature and complexity of cognitive tasks that require more central processing.…”

Gender Differences in Cognitive Abilites

“…Data did not demonstrate differences in reaction time between men and women while gender differences have been reported in a number of studies (Dane and Erzurumlugoglu, 2003;Der and Deary, 2006;Riccio et al, 2001;Noble et al, 1964;Welford, 1980;Adam et al, 1999;Barral and Debu, 2004;Spierer et al, 2010).…”

“…Males have faster reaction times than females and female disadvantage is not reduced by practice (Noble et al, 1964;Welford, 1980;Adam et al, 1999;Dane and Erzurumlugoglu, 2003;Blough and Slavin, 1987). Women had slower simple reaction times than men (Der and Deary, 2006), whereas other research Science Publications CRP suggests that while male were faster than female at aiming at a target, the female were more accurate (Barral and Debu, 2004). Spierer et al (2010) indicated that male athletes respond faster as compared with female athletes to both visual and auditory stimuli, which involved gross motor movement, whereas Silverman et al (2007) indicated that such differences were relatively small.…”