4.0407 Handedness and Memory (3/61)

Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Wed, 22 Aug 90 15:56:03 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0407. Wednesday, 22 Aug 1990.


(1) Date: Tue, 21 Aug 90 18:48 EDT (24 lines)
From: <HANSCHKA@HARTFORD>
Subject: re: Left-Handed People Forced to Switch

(2) Date: Tue, 21 Aug 90 19:18:04 EDT (22 lines)
From: Stephen Clausing <SCLAUS@YALEVM>
Subject: lefties are not that special

(3) Date: 22 Aug 90 10:16:00 EDT (15 lines)
From: "Mary Dee Harris" <mdharris@guvax.georgetown.edu>
Subject: Left to right

(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 90 18:48 EDT
From: <HANSCHKA@HARTFORD>
Subject: re: Left-Handed People Forced to Switch


I was never FORCED into it, but indirect pressure to conform still
abounds. One of my pet peeves about college and high school concerns
those stupid one-piece desks. The ones on the lecture halls [the
flip-up type] are the worse. Either there are NO left-handed desks in
the room [very common] or else all of the leftie desks were in the back!
In the corners yet! Not liking to pull one of those things all the way
to the front row, I would often write in my lap. a pain, or across my
body, also a pain. I finally taught myself to use a pen right-handed in
self-defense.;-)

There are few left-handed scissors available. When you can find them,
they are usually more expensive. I don't own a pair, and am not certain
I could use them if I did. The same thing goes for calligraphic pens.
The foutain-pen type are often made to be used right-handed only. And
you wonder why us lefties write funny; we have to turn our hands all
crazy ways to get the dumb pens to write!;-)

There's more, but this should be enough to start.
Ruth
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------29----
Date: Tue, 21 Aug 90 19:18:04 EDT
From: Stephen Clausing <SCLAUS@YALEVM>
Subject: lefties are not that special

I have already stated that I suspect, but cannot prove, that lefties are
statistically different from right-handed people. But I am puzzled by
this fascination with names and faces. Doesn't everyone forget the name
when seeing a face now and then? As a lefty, I can hardly imagine that
I am any worse off than anyone else in this accord. On the other hand
(if you will pardon the expression), I can think of a number of much
better criteria for this matter. For example, I mentioned earlier that
I am good at music but bad at drawing. Let me elaborate. I can hear a
melody and repeat it afterward without any problem (minus the words). I
can turn it into a minor chord, or create a harmony on the spot. But my
wife, who is right-handed, cannot do this. By contrast, if you show me
a top, bottom, and side view of an object, I have no idea what the thing
looks like, nor could I draw it if I did. But for my wife this is easy.
I have an impeccable sense of directions, but my wife can barely find
the bathroom at night. None of this may have any relation to
handedness, but these are the criteria which we ought to consider in
such matters, not universals such as whether we occassionally forget a
name.
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------23----
Date: 22 Aug 90 10:16:00 EDT
From: "Mary Dee Harris" <mdharris@guvax.georgetown.edu>
Subject: Left to right

Someone asked about the consequences of changing a left-handed person
into a right-handed one. My family has always said that my father was
left-handed, but was forced to use only his right hand and he stuttered
for several years. I've heard that was a common result. It doesn't
happen as much any more.

Mary Dee Harris
mdharris@guvax.bitnet
mdharris@guvax.georgetown.edu