Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Bimanual comfort depends on how extreme either hand’s posture is, not on which hand is in the more extreme posture

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Psychological Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Although hand preference is one of the best known features of performance, a recent study of object transfer behavior (Coelho, Studenka, & Rosenbaum, J Exp Psychol Human Percept Perform, 40:718–730, 2014) showed that people place greater emphasis on using the hand that avoids extreme joint angles than on using the hand they normally prefer. In the present study, we sought converging evidence for the hypothesis that adopting midrange joint angles by either hand (the preferred-posture hypothesis) is more important than using the preferred hand in particular to adopt midrange joint angles (the preferred-hand hypothesis). We asked participants to hold both of their hands in different orientations and to rate their comfort. Consistent with the preferred-posture hypothesis but contrary to the preferred-hand hypothesis, the bimanual comfort ratings were more strongly affected by how extreme the two hands’ postures were than by which of the hands was in the more extreme posture. The data support a theory of action planning, the posture-based motion planning theory, which says that whole-body postural comfort is a key ingredient for physical action planning.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aruin, A. S., & Latash, M. L. (1995). Directional specificity of postural muscles in feed-forward postural reactions during fast voluntary arm movements. Experimental Brain Research, 103, 323–332.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, N. (1967). The coordination and regulation of movements. London: Pergamon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Botvinick, M., & Cohen, J. (1998). Rubber hands “feel” touch that eyes see. Nature, 391, 756.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bullock, D., Bongers, R. M., Lankhorst, M., & Beek, P. J. (1999). A vector-integration-to-endpoint model for performance of viapoint movements. Neural Networks, 12, 1–29.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, K. M. (2013). One good turn deserves another: Constraint hierarchies for action selection in bimanual rotation (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). State College: The Pennsylvania State University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chapman, K. M. & Rosenbaum, D. A. Two-hand grasp choices reveal constraint hierarchies for manual action planning (in preparation).

  • Coelho, C. J., & Rosenbaum, D. A. (2013). Is handedness just response bias? Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 20, 957–962.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coelho, C. J., Studenka, B. E., & Rosenbaum, D. A. (2014). End-state comfort trumps handedness in object manipulation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 40, 718–730.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Corballis, M. (1997). The genetics and evolution of handedness. Psychological Review, 104, 714–727.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Costantini, M., & Haggard, P. (2007). The rubber hand illusion: Sensitivity and reference frame for body ownership. Consciousness and Cognition, 16, 229–240.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Craig, J. C., & Rollman, G. B. (1999). Somesthesis. Annual Review of Psychology, 50, 305–331.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cruse, H., Wischmeyer, E., Brüwer, M., Brockfeld, P., & Dress, A. (1990). On the cost functions for the control of the human arm movement. Biological Cybernetics, 62, 519–528.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, M. H., Rosenbaum, D. A., & Vaughan, J. (1997). Speed and sequential effects in reaching. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 23, 404–428.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, S., Greenberg, R. P., & Reihman, J. (1984). Body perception and somatic discomfort in relation to right- versus left-handedness. Cortex, 20(2), 285–294.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Franz, E. A., & Ramachandran, V. S. (1998). Bimanual coupling in amputees with phantom limbs. Nature Neuroscience, 1, 443–444.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gibson, J. J. (1962). Observations on active touch. Psychological Review, 69, 477–491.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Guiard, Y. (1987). Asymmetric division of labor in human skilled bimanual action: The kinematic chain as a model. Journal of Motor Behavior, 19, 486–517.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, A. F. D. C., & Wolpert, D. M. (2002). Controlling the statistics of action: obstacle avoidance. Journal of Neurophysiology, 87, 2434–2440.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Helmholtz, H. (1866/1962). Handbook of physiological optics. New York: Dover (Translation of Handbuch der physiologischen Optik . Hamburg: Voss).

  • Huhn III, J. M., Schimpf, K. A., & van der Wel, R. P. (2014). Symmetries in action: On the interactive nature of planning constraints for bimanual object manipulation. Experimental Brain Research, 1–9.

  • Jones, L. A., & Lederman, S. J. (2006). Human hand function. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Jung, E. S., & Choe, J. (1996). Human reach posture prediction based on psychophysical discomfort. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 18, 173–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kudar, K. (1994). Az egyes tesre´szek e´s testta´jak tudatossa´gi szintjei a testke´pben, e´s ezek szeme´ lyise´gtulajdonsa´gokkal valo´ o¨ sszefu¨ gge´se´nek vizsga´lata fe´rfi sportolo´kon. Kandida´tusi e´rtekeze´s, Budapest.

  • Latash, M. (2000). There is no motor redundancy in human movements. There is motor abundance. Motor Control, 4(3), 259.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lederman, S. J., & Klatzky, R. L. (1987). Hand movements: A window into haptic object recognition. Cognitive Psychology, 19, 342–368.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lederman, S. J., & Klatzky, R. L. (2009). Haptic perception: A tutorial. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 71(7), 1439–1459.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayer, A., Kudar, K., Bretz, K., & Tihanyi, J. (2008). Body schema and body awareness of amputees. Prosthetics and Orthotics International, 32(2), 363–382.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Meulenbroek, R. G. J., Rosenbaum, D. A., Thomassen, A. J. W. M., Loukopoulos, L. D., & Vaughan, J. (1996). Adaptation of a reaching model to handwriting: How different effectors can produce the same written output, and other results. Psychological Research/Psychologische Forschung, 59, 64–74.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Oldfield, R. C. (1971). The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh inventory. Neuropsychologia, 9, 97–113.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ramachandran, V. S., & Rogers-Ramachandran, D. (1996). Synaesthesia in phantom limbs induced with mirrors. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences, 263, 377–386.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenbaum, D. A., Chapman, K. M., Coelho, C. J., Gong, L., & Studenka, B. E. (2013). Choosing actions. Frontiers in Psychology (Vol. 4, Article 273). doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00273.

  • Rosenbaum, D. A., Chapman, K. M., Weigelt, M., Weiss, D. J., & van der Wel, R. (2012). Cognition, action and object manipulation. Psychological Bulletin, 138, 924–946.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenbaum, D. A., Herbort, O., van der Wel, R., & Weiss, D. J. (2014). What’s in a grasp? American Scientist (September–October issue), 102, 366–373.

  • Rosenbaum, D. A., Loukopoulos, L. D., Meulenbroek, R. G. M., Vaughan, J., & Engelbrecht, S. E. (1995). Planning reaches by evaluating stored postures. Psychological Review, 102, 28–67.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenbaum, D. A., Meulenbroek, R. G., Vaughan, J., & Jansen, C. (2001). Posture-based motion planning: Applications to grasping. Psychological Review, 108, 709–734.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rosenbaum, D. A., van Heugten, C. M., & Caldwell, G. E. (1996). From cognition to biomechanics and back: The end-state comfort effect and the middle-is-faster effect. Acta Psychologica, 71, 59–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Solnik, S., Pazin, N., Coelho, C. J., Rosenbaum, D. A., Zatsiorsky, V. M., & Latash, M. L. (2014). Postural sway and perceived comfort in pointing tasks. Neuroscience Letters, 569, 18–22.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor-Clarke, M., Kennett, S., & Haggard, P. (2002). Vision modulates somatosensory cortical processing. Current Biology, 12, 233–236.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Turvey, M. T. (1996). Dynamic touch. American Psychologist, 51, 1134–1152.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tversky, A. (1972). Elimination by aspects: A theory of choice. Psychological Review, 79, 281–299.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vaughan, J., Barany, D. A., Sali, A. W., Jax, S. A., & Rosenbaum, D. A. (2010). Extending Fitts’ Law to three-dimensional obstacle-avoidance movements: Support for the posture-based motion planning model. Experimental Brain Research, 207, 133–138.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Vaughan, J., Rosenbaum, D. A., & Meulenbroek, R. G. J. (2001). Planning reaching and grasping movements: The problem of obstacle avoidance. Motor Control, 5, 116–135.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Winters, J. M., & Kleweno, D. G. (1993). Effect of initial upper-limb alignment on muscle contributions to isometric strength curves. Journal of Biomechanics, 26, 143–153.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wolpert, D. M., & Flanagan, J. R. (2001). Motor prediction. Current Biology, 11, 729–732.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Assistance with data collection was provided by Victoria Hayes, Alex Lallier, Randy Smith, and Allison Spangler. Helpful comments were provided by Antonia Hamilton, John Huhn, Cory Potts and two anonymous reviewers of an earlier version of this report. This research was supported in part by a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship to DAR.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological Science, University of Arkansas, 216 Memorial Hall, Fayetteville, AR, 72704, USA

    Kate M. Chapman

  2. Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State University, 448 Moore Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    David A. Rosenbaum

Authors
  1. Kate M. Chapman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David A. Rosenbaum
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David A. Rosenbaum.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chapman, K.M., Rosenbaum, D.A. Bimanual comfort depends on how extreme either hand’s posture is, not on which hand is in the more extreme posture. Psychological Research 81, 332–341 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-015-0708-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-015-0708-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation