Stroke-direction preferences in drawing and handwriting

Meulenbroek, R.G.J. and A.J.W.M. Thomassen, 1991. Stroke-direction preferences in drawing and handwriting. Human Movement Science 10, 247-270. The aim of the present study is to examine the contribution of two independent spatial reference sytems in the manipulation of writing instruments. One system relates to the anatomical structure of the arm and the hand (resulting in preferences for oblique, i.e., diagonal movement directions) while the other corresponds with a more abstract, geometrical system (resulting in a bias favouring orthogonal, i.e., vertical and horizontal movement directions). Three experiments are reported in which the independence of these two reference systems is explored in drawing tasks in which subjects produced small back-and-forth movements in a variety of directions. The outcome of the first experiment showed that stroke-direction variability is larger in horizontal than in other directions. In experiment 2 it was predicted that when subjects are forced to choose repeatedly among a set of 16 different directions, a change of arm position would affect the pattern of preferences for oblique directions more than the pattern of preferences for orthogonal directions. The data confirm this hypothesis. In experiment 3 we analysed the changes in stroke-direction preferences as a function of variations in the type and the sire of the movements to be produced as well as the effects of visual control of the motor task on the subjects’ choice of movement directions. This last experiment provides additional evidence for the view that geometrical and anatomical reference systems must be distinguished. Finally, a frame-by-frame analysis of videorecordings of hand and finger movements indicates that the two anatomical subsystems cooperate consistently and predictably during the production of different movement directions.

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