Thread: experiment I'm doing

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    experiment I'm doing

    I know this is kind of strange, but today I decided that I'm going to start doing everything with my left hand (I'm right handed.) I've been wondering if someone could acquire ambidexterity, or at least become significantly skilled with both hands - I mean in writing, using the toothbrush, whatever. I think that being able to write equally well with both hands is sufficient to say a person is either ambidextrous or practically ambidextrous, so this is my long term (I have no idea how long) goal.

    I'm willing to bet that a lot of people would be interested in my results, so I think I will post here weekly and let you guys know how it's going (that should be adequate time to see some change.) I encourage anyone who is curious (or just bored) to try it along with me.

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    Officially An Architect brewbuck's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by David.Joseph View Post
    I know this is kind of strange, but today I decided that I'm going to start doing everything with my left hand (I'm right handed.) I've been wondering if someone could acquire ambidexterity, or at least become significantly skilled with both hands - I mean in writing, using the toothbrush, whatever. I think that being able to write equally well with both hands is sufficient to say a person is either ambidextrous or practically ambidextrous, so this is my long term (I have no idea how long) goal.

    I'm willing to bet that a lot of people would be interested in my results, so I think I will post here weekly and let you guys know how it's going (that should be adequate time to see some change.) I encourage anyone who is curious (or just bored) to try it along with me.
    My mother was born lefty, and was pretty much forced to be a righty in elementary school. She is convinced that this permanently destroyed her hand coordination. Now she uses a schizophrenic combination of both hands for various tasks -- eats left handed, writes right handed. Brushes teeth with left hand. Turns a screw driver with right hand. Etc.

    So you might find yourself becoming more ambidextrous... Or you might find that you can't work properly with EITHER hand anymore

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    Lurking whiteflags's Avatar
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    Start with easier things besides writing. After you've practiced doing some other things with your opposite hand, you can try writing because it shouldn't feel as weird. Don't rush while you learn to write again though; start slow and pick up speed as it becomes easier.

    I'm left handed, btw. It's sort of freaky for some people. I don't really endorse becoming a lefty.

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    Quote Originally Posted by citizen View Post
    Start with easier things besides writing. After you've practiced doing some other things with your opposite hand, you can try writing because it shouldn't feel as weird. Don't rush while you learn to write again though; start slow and pick up speed as it becomes easier.

    I'm left handed, btw. It's sort of freaky for some people. I don't really endorse becoming a lefty.
    I'm actually fairly skilled with my left hand already. I can play ping pong almost equally well with my left hand, but my writing looks like a child's. It is legible though, so I think that it can be improved.

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    Quote Originally Posted by brewbuck View Post

    So you might find yourself becoming more ambidextrous... Or you might find that you can't work properly with EITHER hand anymore
    Thats a risk I'm willing to take

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    Officially An Architect brewbuck's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by David.Joseph View Post
    I'm actually fairly skilled with my left hand already. I can play ping pong almost equally well with my left hand, but my writing looks like a child's. It is legible though, so I think that it can be improved.
    And do you find that you get ink smeared all over your left hand as it strides across the paper? There's a reason we write left-to-right

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    Supermassive black hole cboard_member's Avatar
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    I broke my wrist when I was in primary school and had to write with my left hand for some time, but I'm pretty sure any manner of skill I attained has faded considering I've done nothing significant with my left hand since.

    What the hell, seems pretty interesting, I'll try it for a day, starting tomorrow and the great brushing of the teeth. If I don't impale my cheeks or anything, I'll post tomorrow night.

    EDIT: OK I just tried to write my name with my left hand and jeez, I can barely join the letters up. It is fairly legible though.
    Last edited by cboard_member; 07-10-2007 at 04:20 PM.
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    I often brush my teeth with my left hand to try to improve its dexterity. My ultimate goal is generally sports related. Having good coordination in both hands is often helpful, especially in basketball which I have the opportunity to play more than other sports.

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    I consider myself lefty, but way back in early school years I was ..........ed at and even had wooden rules smacked onto my left hand while I wrote. I have no idea what the hell the stigma was back then with being lefty, we're evil or some dip.......... thing like that, though once I hit junior high school no teacher ever said a word about using your left hand.

    I don't consider myself ambidexterous (sp?), I'm more simply just screwed up. I swing a hammer lefty, throw objects with my left hand, write both left and right, bowl and a slew of other things. On the right side, I shoot a gun, golf, use a bow, shoot pool and a mess of other activities. I'm more likely to use a mechanical tool with my right hand, though if it requires maximum strength I'll generally switch to my left hand.

    To the actual question, yes I think you can train yourself to use both (hands). Although, I'd imagine one side will always remain the dominant (or stronger).

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    Dr Dipshi++ mike_g's Avatar
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    If you have a knife in one hand and a fork in the other which ones your eating hand? Many task require ambidexterity, where relevant you learn them. Such as typing or using a joypad. For tasks like writing you only really need one hand. IMHO I'd rather have one hand thats good at it than two hands that arent.

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    Well it's been almost a week. I'll just go ahead and tell you guys where I'm at. I'm actually surprised at my progress.

    So that first day was discouraging and my handwriting looked like a child's.

    The second day was nearly the same, but I noticed a bit more easiness in my writing.

    The third day was noticeably better.

    The fourth day was even better. In fact, at this point, my left-hand writing was almost identical to my right. The major difference was that I wrote much slower with my left hand and it didn't feel as natural.

    The fifth day, as can be expected, was better. I will say that at this point, my left hand was about 90% of my right as far as proficiency.

    I didn't notice too much change today, the sixth day. Maybe a little better. I certainly don't feel uncomfortable writing with my left hand anymore.

    So as you can see, it went quicker than I expected. I'm glad that I took the time to do this, and it didn't turn out unsuccessful. It would have sucked to commit to a week of writing with my left hand if it didn't get any better.

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    For writing, right-handedness is almost always better. Since we write left-to-right, right-handedness means you won't be covering the characters you just wrote, which also means less smudging when it comes to inks. Also, our right-hand is controlled by the left part of the brain, which is responsible for critical thought and logic, which in theory, should allow you to write scientific/technical material more effeciently with your right hand. In that same respect however, in theory, lefty's may be more naturally equipped to produce scribal art (since the right lobe is responsible for imagery and creativity).

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    Quote Originally Posted by @nthony View Post
    For writing, right-handedness is almost always better. Since we write left-to-right, right-handedness means you won't be covering the characters you just wrote, which also means less smudging when it comes to inks. Also, our right-hand is controlled by the left part of the brain, which is responsible for critical thought and logic, which in theory, should allow you to write scientific/technical material more effeciently with your right hand. In that same respect however, in theory, lefty's may be more naturally equipped to produce scribal art (since the right lobe is responsible for imagery and creativity).
    I know that it's easier to write with your right hand, I just wanted to be able to write with either.

    I haven't seen any evidence that motor functions are linked to cognitive functions in such a way. Can you show me where you read that?

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    Quote Originally Posted by David.Joseph View Post
    I know that it's easier to write with your right hand, I just wanted to be able to write with either.

    I haven't seen any evidence that motor functions are linked to cognitive functions in such a way. Can you show me where you read that?
    I am not a psychology student, but this is what I remember from high school.
    In the 60s, they did some experiments on split-brain patients. These were people who had a surgical operation performed on the brain, dividing the hemispheres, in order to control epileptic seizures (less communication means less chance of an overload).

    Their experiments showed that these patients recognized object differently when put in their left field of vision, or their right field of vision, most notably not being able to name objects if on the left side (or is it right?).

    I think that the left vs right you hear in folk psychology is pretty much bunk though. Information should be passing seamlessly between the two sides.
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    and the hat of int overfl Salem's Avatar
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    Perhaps try writing in the other direction with your left hand.
    http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/Leon...ghttoLeft.html
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