Stroke-direction preferences in drawing and handwriting

Meulenbroek, Ruud G. J.; Thomassen, Arnold J.W.M.

doi:10.1016/0167-9457(91)90006-j

Cited by 60 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…This movement direction is a preferred movement direction (Goodnow and Levine, 1973;Meulenbroek and Thomassen, 1991). Thus, the syntactic data observed in Experiment 2 were globally similar to those found in Experiment I.…”

Section: Movement Directionsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…Recall that a smaller size of the first segment of acute patterns than the first segment of obtuse patterns was observed in the tracing condition. Furthermore, when we consider which movement directions the subjects used, the first segment of acute patterns was almost always drawn in a non-preferred direction (towards the top left; Meulenbroek and Thomassen, 1991), whereas the first segment of obtuse patterns was drawn in a preferred direction (towards the bottom right). Given the position of the pen and of the hand, subjects had a constant vision of the end-point of the model's segment when they traced in a non-preferred direction, In contrast, in a preferred direction, seeing the extremity of the segment's model is more difficult, because it is partially masked by the pen and the hand (sec also Van Sommers, 1984).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Biomechanical and perceptual determinants of drawing angles

Desbiez

Vinter

Meulenbroek³

1996

Acta Psychologica

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This study focuses on perceptual and biomechanical determinants of the kinematics of angular drawing movements. Two experiments are reported in which twelve righthanded adults were asked to draw geometrical patterns consisting of three segments comprising either two acute or two obtuse angles. In Experiment 1, a lower frequency of pauses was observed in acute patterns and their segment length tended to be overestimated, The former effect is attributed to the exploitation of elasticity (Guiard, 1993). In order to evaluate whether the latter effect was due to perceptual factors, a second experiment was conducted. Twelve subjects drew a subset of the angular patterns under normal visual conditions and under conditions in which they could neither see their moving limb nor the resulting drawing trace. Again, subjects produced more pauses at obtuse than at acute angles and tended to overestimate the segment length in acute patterns. It is concluded that pauses are likely to occur between segments of discrete movement sequences when potential energy needs to be dissipated. When conditions arise that allow subjects to exploit elasticity, however, segment length tends to increase, The results of Experiment 2 confirm that these phenomena are independent from visual perception.

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Section: Movement Directionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biomechanical and perceptual determinants of drawing angles

Desbiez

Vinter

Meulenbroek³

1996

Acta Psychologica

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“…Another factor that has been shown to affect limb segment selection in drawing is the orientation of the axis along which the pen tip is moved. Meulenbroek and Thomassen (1991) showed that right-handed subjects producing graphic movements in the horizontal plane, at table height, primarily used their lingers to produce movements along the line between upper left and lower right, as long as the amplitude of the movement was not too large. Movements along the line between upper right and lower left were accomplished primarily with the hand.…”

Section: Efficiency Constraints On Limb Segment Selectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limb Segment Recruitment as a Function of Movement Direction, Amplitude, and Speed

Schillings

Meulenbroek

Thomassen

1996

Journal of Motor Behavior

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ABSTRACT. Coordination of limb segments in graphic motor behavior has been studied primarily in cyclic tasks. In the present study, limb segment recruitment patterns were investigated in a discrete line-drawing task. Subjects ( N = 11) performed pointing movements varying in direction, amplitude, and speed. The contributions of index finger, hand, and arm to the movement were analyzed by evaluating the angular displacements in 7 joint dimensions. The results showed that amplitude and direction affected limb segment involvement in the same way they have been reported to affect it in cyclic movements. Upward left-(upleft) directed movements were primarily achieved by fingers and arm, whereas upward right-(up-right) directed movements were accomplished with the hand and the arm. Large amplitudes elicited not only an increase of proximal but also a decrease of distal limb segment involvement, especially in the upleft direction. In the present discrete pointing task, effects of speed on limb segment involvement were different from speed effects that were observed earlier in cyclic tasks: Larger limb segments became more involved in fast than in slow discrete movements. With respect to the timing of limb segment recruitment, all joints tended to move simultaneously, but small deviations from synchronous joint movement onset and offset were present. The results are discussed in the context of recent theories of limb segment coordination.

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“…Based on these simulation results it was argued that Pen Protrusion and Pronation Angle, through rotations of the graphic area, comfort slopes, and the underlying ®nger and wristmovement axes, should aect the ease with which movements are produced in various directions. This, in turn, is likely to interact with preferences that exist in subjects to perform graphic movements in certain directions rather than in others (Meulenbroek & Thomassen, 1991, 1992Van Sommers, 1984). Therefore, besides studying the chosen starting location for producing graphic strokes in the present experiment, we also investigated whether subjects' stroke-direction preferences were indeed aected by manipulations of their Pen Protrusion and Pronation Angle.…”

Section: The Graphic Area and Drawing Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Comfort constrains graphic workspace: Test results of a 3D forearm model

Schillings

Thomassen

Meulenbroek

2000

Psychological Research Psychologische Forschung

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Human movement performance is subject to many physical and psychological constraints. Analyses of these constraints may not only improve our understanding of the performance aspects that subjects need to keep under continuous control, but may also shed light on the possible origins of specific behavioral preferences that people display in motor tasks. The goal of the present paper is to make an empirical contribution here. In a recent simulation study, we reported effects of pen-grip and forearm-posture constraints on the spatial characteristics of the pen tip's workspace in drawing. The effects concerned changes in the location, size, and orientation of the reachable part of the writing plane, as well as variations in the computed degree of comfort in the hand and finger postures required to reach the various parts of this area. The present study is aimed at empirically evaluating to what extent these effects influence subjects' graphic behavior in a simple, free line-drawing task. The task involved the production of small back-and-forth drawing movements in various directions, to be chosen randomly under three forearm-posture and five pen-grip conditions. The observed variations in the subjects' choice of starting positions showed a high level of agreement with those of the simulated graphic-area locations, showing that biomechanically defined comfort of starting postures is indeed a determinant of the selection of starting points. Furthermore, between-condition rotations in the frequency distributions of the realized stroke directions corresponded to the simulation results, which again confirms the importance of comfort in directional preferences. It is concluded that postural rather than spatial constraints primarily affect subjects' preferences for starting positions and stroke directions in graphic motor performance. The relevance of the present modelling approach and its results for the broader field of complex motor behavior, including the manipulation of tools, is indicated briefly.

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Stroke-direction preferences in drawing and handwriting

Cited by 60 publications

References 15 publications

Biomechanical and perceptual determinants of drawing angles

Biomechanical and perceptual determinants of drawing angles

Limb Segment Recruitment as a Function of Movement Direction, Amplitude, and Speed

Comfort constrains graphic workspace: Test results of a 3D forearm model

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