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Factor Analysis of Multiple Measures of Hand Use in Captive Chimpanzees: An Alternative Approach to the Assessment of Handedness in Nonhuman Primates

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Abstract

We tested whether chimpanzee handedness could be characterized as either unidimensional or multidimensional when considered across multiple measures of hand use. We determined for each of 6 different tasks in a sample of 105 captive chimpanzees hand preferences, and subjected the individual hand preference scores to a factor analysis. Five of the 6 tasks loaded on two separate factors that accounted for 54% of the variance. To assess population-level handedness, we calculated handedness indices for the loadings on each factor, for the item loadings across all factors, and for all tasks including ones that did not load on any factor. There is significant population-level right handedness for all 4 indices, which suggests that chimpanzee handedness is multidimensional and not task specific.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Berry College, Mount Berry, Georgia, 30149

    Michael J. Wesley, Autumn Hostetter, Sarah Poss & William D. Hopkins

  2. Division of Psychobiology, Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, 30322

    Samuel Fernandez-Carriba & Dawn Pilcher

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  1. Michael J. Wesley
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  2. Samuel Fernandez-Carriba
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  3. Autumn Hostetter
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  4. Dawn Pilcher
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  5. Sarah Poss
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  6. William D. Hopkins
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Wesley, M.J., Fernandez-Carriba, S., Hostetter, A. et al. Factor Analysis of Multiple Measures of Hand Use in Captive Chimpanzees: An Alternative Approach to the Assessment of Handedness in Nonhuman Primates. International Journal of Primatology 23, 1155–1168 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021114518028

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