What is it about?
When people learn to write and draw, they acquire motor programs that specify the movements for producing letters (e.g., A) and shapes (e.g., square). We question the widely-accepted view that motor programs learned with one hand (e.g., the right hand) can be used for writing and drawing with the other hand (or even with a foot writing in the sand). We found that people asked to write with their non-dominant hand (e.g., the left hand for right-handers) often used different movement patterns than when writing with their dominant hand. Our results may have implications for the teaching of writing and drawing in general, and indicate in particular that left-handers should not be taught the same writing movements as right-handers.
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Why is it important?
Skilled movements are important in a broad range of human activities: texting on a smartphone, playing sports, driving, using tools, handwriting, and so forth. Gaining a better understanding of what we learn when we acquire motor skills such as these may contribute to development of better methods for teaching skills, better approaches to helping individuals with movement disorders resulting from brain damage, and better design of human-technology interfaces in which people need to perform skilled movements (for example, clicking and swiping on a touchscreen).
Perspectives
This work grew out of a study I conducted with a stroke patient who had difficulty writing letters and numbers correctly. I became interested in what kinds of knowledge we acquire in learning to write, and so began to explore this issue in research with neurotypical participants. The participants wrote on a graphics tablet, allowing us to track the movement of the pen moment by moment. In this way we could study the writing process and product in detai.
Michael McCloskey
Johns Hopkins University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Effector independence in writing., Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance, March 2025, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/xhp0001308.
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