Pen Pressure in Chinese Handwriting

Abstract

Investigations of the movement control in handwriting have indicated two basic components, direct motor control of the pen interacting with the writing surface relative to muscular manipulations in the writing task and the writing action relative to the modes of perceptual presentation of stimulus (e.g., tracing, freehand or copying) (Kao & Shek, 1986). Kao (1984) found that 'tracing' Chinese characters with greater stroke frequency resulted in less writing pressure. The present study extended this by examining the effects on writing pressure of task complexity of Chinese character writing in the 'copying' mode of motor control Subjects were 10 female and 10 male undergraduate students; their mean agc was 22.4 yr. Subjects used a ball-point pen to copy eight Chinese characters varying in number of strokes from 4 to 13, presented in a random order. Writing pressure was recorded using a modified model of an electronic handwriting analyser (Kao, Smith, & Knutson, 1969). There was a significant negative correlation between stroke frequency and writing pressure (r, = -0.79, p < .01), indicating that the more complex a character was in number of strokes the less pressure exerted during writing. The respective means for the characcers consisting of 4, 5, 7, 7, 11, 12, 12, and 13 strokes were 119.7, 125.6, 115.6, 103.9, 104.8, 102.9, 98, and 108.2. It is speculated these data reflect a mocor stabilization effect after initial adjustments in the characters. To write each character certain initial muscular adjustment and effort are required; such motor adjustments and effort later stabilize. To write complex characcers, motor adjustment and stabilization (after the initial adjustment effect has been stabilized) would benefit the writing of the remainder of the character, resulting in lower mean pressure. For less complex characters, it is not necessary to adjust and stabilize mocor movement to benefit the writing of the latter portion of the character, as the character is completed in only a few strokes; hence, a higher over-all mean pressure.