TEST-RETEST RELIABILITY OF THE EDINBURGH HANDEDNESS INVENTORY AND GLOBAL HANDEDNESS PREFERENCE MEASUREMENTS, AND THEIR CORRELATION

Test-retest reliability of the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory and of s elf-reported Global Handedness (left, right, ambidextrous), administer ed 18 mo. apart, was evaluated for 735 adult subjects. Conventional me thods for evaluating test-retest reliability were compared with cross- tabulation and the kappa statistic, using as criteria both the degree of agreement and the degree and direction of disagreement. Inventory-d erived laterality scores were correlated with Global Handedness respon ses, yielding a characteristics distribution of laterality cores for e ach global response which permitted the partitioning of the J-shaped f requency distribution plot of laterality scores into right, left, and ambidextrous regions. Test-retest reliability of the correlation betew een global responses and laterality scores on retest was demonstrated.