Description and validation of a flexible and broadly usable handedness questionnaire.

Empirical evidence is provided which shows that handedness questionnaires should: (a) comprise items that cover skilled and unskilled activities; (b) be sufficiently long to capture a ''mass effect'' of variability in lateral preferences over a range of items; and (c) allow graded answer options for individual items rather than forced left/right choices. When using questionnaires that meet these criteria, it is possible to establish significant correlations between hand preference and performance even within a group of right-handers. In addition, such questionnaires are flexible enough to accommodate a great variety of handedness classification schemes.