Real-life experiments in Explore-At-Bristol

Which eye do you use most – left or right? How strong are your hands? Who do you respond to most – Maggie Thatcher, Tony Blair or a spider? These were just some of the questions that scientists hoped to answer after spending a weekend in Explore.

Over 200 visitors took part in our ‘Real-life experiments’ in Explore-At-Bristol. The experiments were run by Dr Priscilla Heard and her team from the University of the West of England (UWE).

Are you right or left-handed... or both?

Most people would say they are either right-handed or left-handed. Yet research shows that many people alternate their hand use depending on the task.

In this experiment, visitors were asked to do a series of tasks whilst psychologists logged which hand they used. The aim was to find out whether people who are always left-handed or always right-handed are better with their hands and are less accident prone than 'mixed-handers'.