Delineation of Female Performance on the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure

One hundred and three college female subjects (ages 18-24) were administered the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure on Copy, Immediate Recall, and 20-minute Delayed Recall. Subjects were grouped based on handedness, familial handedness, and academic major (mathematics/science and non-mathematics/science). Based on the scoring system of Wither and Holmes, the mathematics/science anomalous dominance groups (familial left-handers and right-handers with first-degree left-handed relatives) obtained higher mean scores than all other subgroups, and the non-mathematics/science familial right-handers were the low performers. It is speculated that the high-performing groups have an increased ability to coordinate the use of left- and right-hemisphere processing.