A question of foot dominance : a contextual perspective /
Recent investigations suggest that footedness may be a more useful measure of specific neurological ftmctioning than handedness. However, because of the asymmetric contralateral roles involved in most footedness inventory tasks (i.e., stabilization with concurrent manipulation), a clear definition...
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| Format: | Thesis Book |
| Language: | English |
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[Place of publication not identified] :
[publisher not identified] ;
1996.
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| Online Access: | http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=743149031&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=2945&RQT=309&VName=PQD |
| Summary: | Recent investigations suggest that footedness may be a more useful measure of specific neurological ftmctioning than handedness. However, because of the asymmetric contralateral roles involved in most footedness inventory tasks (i.e., stabilization with concurrent manipulation), a clear definition of foot preference is problematic. While the only theoretical treatise of footedness (Previc, 199 1) suggests that, due to neurodevelopmental influences (predisposing the left side for actions of stability), the role of the lower limbs are complimentary in nature, the notion has lacked experimental evidence. Because of the dilemma, general consensus has been to simply operationally define the manipulative limb as dominant. The purpose of this study was to investigate the contextual dependency of foot preference by observing footedness behavior across the following three experimentally controlled contexts: (1) A unilateral context of stability with varying levels of complexity. (2) A unilateral context of manipulation only (with minimal pedal stabilization required). (3) A bilateral context of stabilization with concurrent manipulative effort, under different levels of postural complexity. Limb choice was recorded for 47 right-and 32 left-footed subjects (as assessed by initial preference inventory including only widely accepted bilateral items) across all phases of the investigation. Results indicated a concordance between foot preference for manipulation in traditional bilateral tasks and preference regarding unilateral tasks with attentional focus on stability. Further, unilateral manipulative preference was extremely predictable from bilateral manipulative choice with 98% right foot and 84% left foot agreement between contexts. Finally and perhaps most interesting, was the discovery that limb choice was quite unpredictable in bilateral tasks in which there was no clear differentiation regarding neurological focus of attention (i.e., stabilization/manipulation). From a global perspective a slight pattern was observed regarding preference behavior across the different behavioral contexts, with limb choice contingent upon the attentional focus required by the individual task. Thus, from the results of this investigation it appears that foot preference is contextually dependent. |
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| Item Description: | Vita. "Major Subject: Kinesiology". |
| Physical Description: | x, 116 leaves : illustrations ; 28 cm. Issued also on microfiche from University Microfilms Inc. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references. |