Comparison of performance of right and left-handed individuals in tactile short-term memory retention

30 normal individuals (right-handed, n=15; left-handed n=15) were compared in their performance in tactile short-term memory retention. There were 4 experimental conditions, randomly ordered for each subject. Each condition was composed of a memory task and a distractor task. Different performance results were found on the memory task in the right-handed subjects. This difference was in favor of left hand performance. A significant interaction effect (p\u3c.05) was found between handedness and when the left hand performed the memory task and the right hand did the distractor task. This suggests a relationship between handedness and cerebral lateralization in tactile short-term memory