Does being left or right handed affect word choice ?

Has anyone ever seen a study done to find out whether being left or right handed makes any difference in the words someone chooses while typing?

My thinking is that someone who is left handed, may subconsciously select one word over another based entirely on the fact that one word uses letters on the left side of the keyboard more often than it uses letters on the right side. Theoretically, words that use more keys from the dominant hands side of the keyboard should be easier to type than words with more letters from the other side of the keyboard.

I also wonder if such a thing could make a difference in the development of a person's vocabulary.

What would happen if schools did away with pens and pencils, would we have more ambidextrous people, and how would that affect vocabulary development ?

If you look at a computer keyboard you will see most of the vowels needed are generally based near the top of the keyboard and spread across it so as to make it easier to use. You'll also see that the keyboard is clearly in favour of those of us who are right handed because most of the not so commonly used letters tend to be on the left (X, Z, W, Q) whereas on the right you've got (L, K, M, N).

I don't really think the keyboard is going to change the use of vocabulary (even that word alone took letters from both sides of the keyboard) and if you are using both hands to type away then it become even easier to make use of all the words there are out there.

As a side note, i was just paying attention to the way i was typing in that last paragraph and noticed how my left hand was doing most of the work as it covers the left hand side and centre of the keyboard. I thought that was interesting because i am right handed.

I've typed the way I do now for a few years now. My left hand gets everything over to YGB and my right hand does the rest.

While my left hand spreads the work around to all fingers, my right hand uses the pointer finger to do most of the work, the middle finger hits the IO keys, thumb gets the spacebar, and pinky gets the enter key. I don't use the ring finger on my right hand for some reason.

I suspect the reason I use my right hand the way I do is I have to use the symbol keys a lot while writing code. Another likely reason is I broke the pinky side of my right hand a few years ago and I don't think it ever healed properly. It could also be that there are 16 letters my left hand has to deal with and only 10 letters for my right hand.

I'm left handed.

Personally, I think there's too many things people do outside of school that contribute to which hand they use. Also, your vocabulary may be slightly skewed from the hand that you use, but honestly I believe that you learn most, if not all, of your vocabulary from your environment. Your home life, friends, and teachers.

As for the way you type, there's many aspects that can take place to determine how you type and what fingers you use more than others, but I personally don't seem to use one hand more than the other or pick words based on where they are on the keyboard. I type with both hands and use all my fingers (my right middle finger doesn't bend all the way, from an injury when I was six, and I still use it normally).

I'm going to be thinking about this a lot though, lol. Concentrating on how I type and if I use one hand more than the other, but while I was typing this response I didn't recognize anything in particular.

Good question, thanks for the post!

Do left handed people use their left side of the brain more or something like that? I'm not sure, but I think I read that somewheres...

If that is the case then ambidextrous people must be pretty intelligent!

Haven't thought about that.

Actually, the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, and vise-versa. The left side of the brain is also the side largely responsible for skills such as reading, logic, math, and abstract thinking, while the right side is used more for creativity.

These facts are often used to make the argument that left-handed people are more creative and/or artistic, although there's no scientific merit behind the claim. The brain is a very versatile thing and nothing is absolute.

I have an idea for a test.

I need a synonyms database. From that I can look for synonym pairs that use more letters from different sides of the keyboard. Then I can setup something similar to Google's image tagger where a user is presented with both synonyms at the same time and they have to type the one they like better. After the test I guess which hand they write with and then ask them which hand they write with, then compare my guess with their answer.

if you ever actually do that, I'm totally in to be a test subject. I generally type evenly with both hands, i.e. I don't consciously notice any lag in either hand when typing. I'd be really curious to see how a test went.

I wonder if you did that test with one eye covered, then the other and compared the results - would that have an effect? You can actually slice the brain into two spheres and function as normal, as long as you keep both eyes open.