Hand preference for reaching for objects was assessed in 63 female infants (twenty‐two 9‐month‐olds, eighteen 13‐month‐olds, and twenty‐three 20‐month‐olds). Unimanual reaching was elicited for five different kinds of objects after demonstrations of their use: putting pegs in a pegboard, drawing with a crayon, building a tower of cubes, stirring a spoon in a cup, and putting cubes in a cup. Bimanual manipulation was elicited for four different toys after demonstrations of their use: nut‐and‐bolt, car‐in‐a‐jar, ball‐in‐a‐box, and pinwheel. For unimanual reaching, there was a significant increase with age in the percentage of infants showing a right‐hand preference as well as an increase in strength of preference. Further analyses also revealed that of the different tasks, the crayon task was the most reliable predictor of hand preference, whereas the spoon‐in‐the‐cup task was the least reliable. For bimanual manipulation, frequency of right‐hand manipulation increased with age, although there were age‐related changes in hand‐preference patterns. Younger infants tended to approach all tasks as unimanual reaching tasks, whereas older infants used more task‐specific approaches. We conclude that previous reports of discontinuities in the development of handedness reflect, at least to some extent, the changing functional significance of the handedness tasks themselves.
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Cornwell et al. (1991) studied this question.