Which Foot Do You Start Walking With?

Which Foot Do You Start Walking With? McKenzie Gould New Castle Sr. High School 10th Grade

Background One day, I noticed that when my friend and I started walking, we took our first step at the same time with the same foot. We started talking about why that could have happened. We noticed that we both write with the same hand, and it was the opposite hand of the foot we stepped with first. This led me to the question: Does the hand a person writes with determine which foot they step with first?

Research • Handedness- the idea that one hand is better able to perform certain tasks then the other is • Footedness- the property of favoring one foot over the other • Handedness is determined by the structure of our brains, which are divided into two hemispheres • Left hemisphere controls: • Analytic thought, logic, writing skills, step by step reasoning/problem solving, etc… • Right hemisphere controls: • Creativity, imagination, musicality, emotional expression, etc… • Left handed people tend to be right hemisphere dominant • Right handed people tend to be left hemisphere dominant • Between 70 and 90 percent of people are right-handed • Well over 90% of those people cluster language and fine motor skill control in the left hemisphere. • Being left or right-handed has to do with how the right and left sides of the brain relate to one another.

Research cont. • Study done at the University of Guelph, Canada • Not a lot of research has been done on “footedness” however “handedness” is related to a genetic condition – “footedness” should be also • Researchers predict that “footedness” should follow “handedness” • Example: righties should also be right footed and step with their right foot first • This is not what I have observed in my own experience • According to www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au • Researchers once believed that handedness revealed which brain hemisphere was dominant, but that is not true. • The website states “Many people may be right-handed but, for example, always take the first step with their left foot.”

Research cont. • Other examples of “footedness” • Ben Roethlisberger • Throws with his right hand • Punts with his left foot

Sources Used in Research www.childcarequarterly.com www.ajms.alameenmedical.org www.mentalfloss.com

Hypothesis • Right handed people will step with their left foot first and left handed people will step with their right foot first. • I think this because when my friends and I tumble in cheerleading we all start with the opposite foot that we write with. • Example: I am right handed and my dominant foot when tumbling is my left.

Variables/Controls • Independent Variable: Handedness • Dependent Variable: Foot stepped with first • Control: Person recording data

Materials List • Pencil • Paper • 25 left-handed people • 25 right-handed people

Procedure • Have the participant stand in front of you and ask them to take three steps forward. • Record which foot they stepped with first. • Ask what hand they write with. • Record Data. • Repeat steps 1-4 with 25 right-handed and 25 left-handed people.

Data Right Handed People

Data Left Handed People

Results Foot stepped with first

Conclusion • Hypothesis restated: • Right handed people will step with their left foot first and left handed people will step with their right foot first • The hypothesis was supported by the data. • 68% of right handed people stepped with their left foot first • 56% of left handed people stepped with their right foot first

Conclusion cont. • Interesting findings: • Seems lefties are more “ambidextrous” when it comes to footedness in my experiment • Ambidextrous- ability to use both hands equally well • Lefties tended to not prefer one foot over the other (44% stepped with left, 56% with right) while almost 70% of righties preferred their left foot • Studies show that left handed people are generally more ambidextrous than right handed people • My data shows that this seems to also be the case with footedness

Error Analysis • Results supported hypothesis for right handed people, most right handed people stepped with their left foot first • Results were more inconclusive with left handed people- the number of people that stepped with their right foot first was almost equal to the number of people that stepped with their left foot first. Could this be due to lefties being more ambidextrous?

Future Research If I were to do this experiment again, I would push the participant from behind so it would show their natural reaction or have them play a game like kick ball to see which foot they kicked with. This could possibly make my results more accurate because the person wouldn’t have any time to think about which foot to step with first. I would be getting their initial reaction.

Which Foot Do You Start Walking With?