Effects of Spatial and Motor Demands in Handwriting |
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Authors: | Rudolf E. van der Plaats Gerard P. van Galen |
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Affiliation: | Nijmegen Institute for Cognition Research and Information Technology (NICI) University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands |
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Abstract: | Four experiments were conducted to study response programming in handwriting tasks. Twelve right-handed subjects wrote acoustically presented words and phrases, and their handwriting was digitally recorded. Changes in latency, movement time, trajectory length, and pen pressure were studied as a function of response complexity (i.e., word length, complexity of initial letter, and spacing distance). The lengthening of the spatiotemporal parameters preceding the more complex structures is interpreted to be a reflection of the effects of mental load. The results further indicate that the choice of a programming strategy is dependent on the structural complexity of the task. Writing pressure decreased as a function of increased sequence length. The findings support a hierarchical model of handwriting. |
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