Preferred and Nonpreferred Hand skill in Performing Four Industrial Tasks

The purpose of this study was to test the relative speed and accuracy of the nonpreferred hand in performing bolt twisting, tweezer manipulation, drilling, and nail-driving tasks. Thirty-six adults performed the tasks in that order, holding the tools in the nonpreferred hand half the time. Significant differences in task time scores occurred with tweezers and hammering, but not with bolts and drilling. Similarly, the hands did not differ in drill-aiming accuracy. Scores on the second day revealed learning for the tweezers task, but not for hammering. These results appear to have application to the cumulative trauma disorder problem.