Handedness and footedness in Korean college students

This study was conducted to obtain normative data on foot preference and to compare footedness and handedness in a large sample (N = 866) of college students in Korea, where left-hand use for writing and other public acts is severely restricted (Kang & Harris, 1993). Based on scores from Korean-language versions of the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (EHI; Oldfield, 1971) and the Waterloo Footedness Questionnaire Revised (WFQ-R; Elias, Bryden, & Bulman-Fleming, 1988), 11% of the subjects were left-footed but only 4.2% as left-handed. A significantly higher percentage of left-handers than right-handers showed crossed lateral preference, that is, for preference of the opposite-side foot. Of the left-handers with crossed preference, the majority were inconsistent left-handers (ILH; Peters & Servos, 1989), whereas most of those with uncrossed preference were consistent left-handers (CLH). Factor analysis of the EHI and WFQ-R revealed 2 handedness factors and 2 footedness factors. The footedness factors for skilled unipedal actions and for balancing-stabilizing varied in direction, strength, and relation to handedness in mixed-footers and left-handers, consistent with the possibility that the division of footedness into these categories might be neuropsychologically meaningful.