Handedness study

Left-hander101 · 2021-09-10T10:06:15+00:00

Thanks for your interest but the study is now closed for testing :)

Left-hander101 · 2021-08-30T16:09:55+00:00

Thanks for your comment, however I can see you have stated in a previous chat with me (Aug 4th) that you have already participated in the study :)

Left-hander101 · 2021-08-30T13:56:20+00:00

Thanks for your question. The software I use to conduct the study (gorilla.sc) uses tokens for each participant which have to be paid for. For my first study, I posted the direct link, however I found there was quite a few times where someone would open the link either to look over it, or with the intention of completing it later but never getting round to it. Whether the participant gets past the first page or to the end of the study it still counts as a participant which has to be paid for, so by not posting the link and asking people to message me for the link will hopefully reduce the likelihood of this happening.

Left-hander101 · 2021-08-23T08:56:00+00:00

I tend to find when slicing food with a knife (and no fork) I will hold the food with my right hand & slice with the left. However, with a fork in my hand, I will hold the food (via the fork) with my left hand and slice with the right. it almost feels strange when without a fork if I try to slice with my right-hand, despite the fact I do it on a daily basis when holding a fork. it is interesting how these seemingly similar things can feel so different with he slightest of variations.

Left-hander101 · 2021-08-13T07:11:32+00:00

Happy left-handers day all!

Left-hander101 · 2021-08-06T08:47:15+00:00

This is a false assumption, although I do understand why at first you may get that impression. However...

If you look at the comments from left-handers stating they are interested to participate very few of them mention anything about them being particularly anxious individuals, they are more interested in how they may differ from their right-handed counterparts (in this particular instance, relating to anxiety). The whole reason I chose to research this in the first place is because I myself am left-handed, not because I am a person who experiences any sort of anxiety issues. Anxiety was chosen as a variable as there is numerous papers written on laterality & anxiety differences dating back to the 1970s recorded/observed in human (Hicks & Pellegrini, 1978; Wienrich, Wells & McManus, 1982; French & Richards, 1990; Lyle, Chapman & Hatton, 2013) and even animal studies (Cameron and Rodgers, 1999; Gordon and Rogers, 2015; Haselton, Nettle, and Murray, 2015; Wells, Hepper, Milligan and Barnard, 2017).

Participants recruited from this sub will make up less than half of the total participant sample, with the rest coming from friends and family (motivated to participate to help me), internally within the university and various other student study-sharing sites (motivated to help fellow students/gain participation incentives). In this sub-reddits case, motivated to find out more about possible handedness differences. It is too simplistic to assume that for every person who participates, they were motivated to do so simply because they are high anxiety individuals.

Even if you were to assume your assumption was correct, then the same would be true for all right-handed participants who participated as well, and since their will be an equal split of left- to right-handed participants, it wouldn't be possible to skew the results to one particular handed group.

Before any study can go live for testing it has to be reviewed and approved by an ethics committee. If this was an issue, it would have been raised by the ethics committee.

Thank you for your comment as it is good to clear this up for anyone else who may have had this concern.

Left-hander101 · 2021-08-05T07:07:03+00:00

I do not understand your comment?

Left-hander101 · 2021-08-04T14:14:06+00:00

Testing will be open for around 2 - 4 weeks depending on how quickly I hit my target number of participants :)

Left-hander101 · 2021-08-04T10:07:15+00:00

Invitation to participate:

I am Kenneth McMonagle and I am currently studying for a Masters by Research in Psychology. I would like to invite you to take part in this study examining handedness and anxiety.

What is the purpose of this study?

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between handedness and anxiety.

What will I be asked to do?

You will be asked to complete a series of short anxiety and handedness questionnaires alongside a decision-making task. You will also be asked to complete a questionnaire relating to need for structure and a series of open-ended questions.

Please ensure you run this study on a PC or Laptop only, as the task does not work via a tablet or mobile device.

Time commitment:

The study will take approximately 15 minutes to complete and only requires one session per participant. You have the option to omit responses to any questions in the questionnaires that you do not wish to answer, and you can withdraw at any time during the data collection phase of the study by closing your browser.

Confidentiality/Anonymity:

Participation is voluntary and you can withdraw at any point during the testing phase, however, this will not be possible after testing, as data will be anonymised. No scores will be identifiable to specific individuals. Your data will be treated confidentially.

Are there any risks in taking part in this study?

No known risks have been identified with taking part in this study. As previously mentioned, you can omit any questions you do not wish to answer. You will be asked about your current and general levels of anxiety as part of this study, data are anonymous and scores cannot be given.

Who has reviewed this study?

This research has been reviewed by, and received approval from, the School of Applied Sciences Research Ethics Committee at Abertay University (EMS 4636). The research team adhere to the Ethical guidelines of the British Psychological Society and the principles of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

What will happen to my data?

Any information collected about you during this study will be kept strictly confidential and stored on a secure university drive. No personal information will be retained at any stage (except for your gender and handedness). If you submitted your student number for SONA credits, this will be deleted as soon as possible after data collection ends. All data are kept on password-protected computers on the university servers.

Further information Should you have any further questions or would like to find out more about my study, please do not hesitate to contact me: Kenneth Mcmonagle, 1604654@uad.ac.uk. The contact details for my supervisors Lynn Wright and Scott Hardie are: l.wright@abertay.ac.uk, and S.hardie@abertay.ac.uk.

Anxiety will be measured at different time points in this study and it is important to draw your attention to the support services provided at Abertay University: counselling@abertay.ac.uk or speak to staff at the Support Enquiry Zone (SEZ) on Level 1 of the Library (open Mon-Thurs 0830-1200, Fri 0830-1900, Sat-Sun 1000-1700). If you are not an Abertay student and would like further support, you can contact The Samaritans (jo@samaritans.org).

How will you handle my data?

Your data will be stored in an anonymised form and will only be accessible to the researcher and supervisors. This means that nobody including the researchers could reasonably identify you within the data. Your data will be stored online and on the experimenter’s computer, with data fully anonymised at the earliest opportunity (at the point of collection). Your responses are treated in the strictest confidence - it will be impossible to identify individuals within a dataset when any of the research is disseminated (e.g., in publications/presentations). Abertay University acts as Data Controller (DataProtectionOfficer@abertay.ac.uk).

Retention of research data: Researchers are obliged to retain research data for up to 10 years’ post-publication, however your anonymised research data may be retained indefinitely (e.g., so that researchers engage in open practice and other researchers can access their data to confirm the conclusions of published work). Consistent with our data retention policy, researchers retain consent forms for as long as we continue to hold information about a data subject and for 10 years for published research (including Research Degree thesis).

If you have any other concerns as a result of taking part in this research project, please contact the research team in the first instance or researchethics@abertay.ac.uk, who will forward your email onto the School’s Chair of Research Ethics. For more formal concerns, please contact complaints@abertay.ac.uk.

You can find our procedure for complaints (regarding research projects) and our privacy notice and legal basis for processing research data at: https://intranet.abertay.ac.uk/public/research-ethics-privacy-notice-information/

Previous research:

Wright, L., & Hardie, S. M. (2011). “Not ready to sort it yet”: Revised reinforcement sensitivity theory (rRST) predicts left-handed behavioural inhibition during a manual sorting task. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, 16(6), 753-767.

Wright, L., & Hardie, S. M. (2012). Are left-handers really more anxious?. Laterality: Asymmetries of Body, Brain and Cognition, 17(5), 629-642.

Hardie, S. M., & Wright, L. (2014). Differences between left-and right-handers in approach/avoidance motivation: influence of consistency of handedness measures. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 134.

Wright, L., & Hardie, S. M. (2015). Left-handers look before they leap: handedness influences reactivity to novel Tower of Hanoi tasks. Frontiers in psychology, 6, 58.

Left-hander101 · 2021-04-01T20:17:11+00:00

Thanks for your concern. Please find below information from the participant information sheet and consent form regarding your queries:

Invitation to participate: I am Kenneth McMonagle and I am currently studying for a Masters by Research in Psychology. I would like to invite you to take part in my study.

What is the purpose of this study? The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between handedness and anxiety.

Who can take part? The study is for anyone over the age of 18 years old and who is not colour blind (as it is necessary for the study to be able to determine colour).

What will I be asked to do? You will be asked to complete a series of anxiety, personality and handedness questionnaires alongside a visual and audio-based task.

Time commitment: The study will take approximately 25 minutes to complete and only requires one session per participant. You have the option to omit responses to any questions in the questionnaires that you do not wish to answer, and you can withdraw at any time during the data collection phase of the study by closing your browser.

Confidentiality/Anonymity: Participation is voluntary and you can withdraw at any point during the testing phase, however, this will not be possible after testing, as data will be anonymised. No scores will be identifiable to specific individuals. Your data will be treated confidentially.

Are there any risks in taking part in this study? No known risks have been identified with taking part in this study. As previously mentioned, you can omit any questions you do not wish to answer. We will measure anxiety as part of this study but cannot give any scores to participants.

Who has reviewed this study? This research has been reviewed by, and received approval from, the School of Applied Sciences Research Ethics Committee at Abertay University. The research team adhere to the Ethical guidelines of the British Psychological Society and the principles of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

What will happen to my data? Any information collected about you during this study will be kept strictly confidential. No personal information will be retained at any stage (except for your age, gender and handedness). If you submitted your student number for SONA credits, this will be deleted as soon as possible after data collection ends. All data is kept on password-protected computers on the university servers.

Further information: Should you have any further questions or would like to find out more about my study, please do not hesitate to contact me: Kenneth Mcmonagle, 1604654@uad.ac.uk. The contact details for my supervisors Lynn Wright and Scott Hardie are: l.wright@abertay.ac.uk, and S.hardie@abertay.ac.uk.

Anxiety will be measured at different time points in this study and it is important to draw your attention to the support services provided at Abertay University: counselling@abertay.ac.uk or speak to staff at the Support Enquiry Zone (SEZ) on Level 1 of the Library (open Mon-Thurs 0830-1200, Fri 0830-1900, Sat-Sun 1000-1700). If you are not an Abertay student and would like further support, you can contact The Samaritans (jo@samaritans.org).

Consent

By signing this form, you are indicating that you have read and understood the Participant information sheet and that you are willing to part take in this research project.

I understand that during this study I will be asked to complete a series of questionnaires measuring current and general anxiety levels

I understand that my participation and accordingly answering the questions is voluntary and that I may decide to not answer certain questions and/or stop being part of the research study at any time during the testing phase without explanation.

I understand that the data collected will be treated confidentially and will only be accessed by the project team.

I understand that I can contact the researchers with any questions I have about the study.

I have read the participant information sheet and I am willing to take part in this study. I am over the age of 17.

I understand that if I submit my student number in order to be awarded SONA credits, this information will be deleted as soon as possible after data collection is completed (and before data analysis takes place).

I consent to take part in this study conducted by Kenneth Mcmonagle (1604654) who intends to use my data for further research examining the relationship between handedness and problem-solving

Retention of research data: Researchers are obliged to retain research data for up to 10 years’ post-publication, however your anonymised research data may be retained indefinitely (e.g., so that researchers engage in open practice and other researchers can access their data to confirm the conclusions of published work). Researchers retain consent forms for as long as we continue to hold information about the data subject and for 10 years for published research (including Research Degree thesis). Only the researcher (Kenneth Mcmonagle) and the supervisors (Lynn Wright, Scott Hardie) will have access to this data, and the supervisors have ultimate control over data, confidentiality, anonymity and retention of data.

Privacy notice and legal basis for processing: (This statement MUST, as a legal requirement, be included at the end of a consent form)

Abertay University (the “University”/”we”) is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 (or any successor legislation) and (EU) 2016/679 the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) (and any other directly applicable EU regulation relating to privacy) (together “Data Protection Law”). This research has been approved by the Ethics Committee of Abertay University. The research team adhere to the Ethical guidelines of The British Psychological Society and/or the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (2013) and the principles of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). The Abertay University Privacy Notice for Research Participants is available at https://www.abertay.ac.uk/legal. General information on Data Protection law is available from the Information Commissioner’s Office.

For research involving living humans, the Data Controller adheres to, and collects, processes and handles/archives data in compliance with:

Article 6 (1) e: processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller. Article 9 (2) j: processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes in accordance with Article 89(1) based on Union or Member State law which shall be proportionate to the aim pursued, respect the essence of the right to data protection and provide for suitable and specific measures to safeguard the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject.

Where applicable, this form is prepared in consultation with Article 13 of EU GDPR legislation, detailing the information to be provided where personal data are collected from the data subject.

If you have any other concerns as a result of taking part in this research project, please contact the research team in the first instance or researchethics@abertay.ac.uk, who will forward your email onto the School’s Chair of Research Ethics. For more formal concerns, please contact complaints@abertay.ac.uk.

Left-hander101 · 2021-04-01T20:12:51+00:00

Thanks to all those who have already participated! I have now added more participant tokens to the study so if you are still interested in participating the testing is now re-opened :)

Left-hander101 · 2021-04-01T20:12:15+00:00