Matthews found a German study which looked atwhat he called 'mixed-handedness',that is,thecapacity to use both left and right hands equally.Itlooked at mised-handedness in 40 musicians on avariety of instruments.Researchers examined anumber of variables,e.g. type of instrumentplayed,regularity of practice undertaken and lengthof time playing instrument...and found thefollowing:keyboard players had high levels of mixed-handedness,whereas string players like cellists andviolinists strongly favoured one hand.Also those whostarted younger were more mixed-handed.
Matthews also reports studies of handedness in apes.Apes get a large proportion of their foodby 'fishing' ants from ant hills.The studies show that apes,like humans,show handedness-though for them right-and left-handedness is about equal,whereas about 85% of humans areright-handed.Studies showed that apes consistently using the same hand fished out 30%more ants than those varying between the two.