II. Writing Experiments, Involving Different Degrees of Practice and Volitional Control
The tests used were the following: (a) Copying a list of familiar English words, (b) Copying two-syllable nonsense words, (c) Copying German words, (d) Copying the English words while tapping with the left foot, (e) Copying the nonsense syllables while repeating the Greek or German alphabet, (f) Writing the subject's name and address upside down with the left hand, (g) Writing the name and address with the left hand while shielded from direct vision and controlled by means of the reflection of it in a mirror placed before the paper.[1]
With the exception of the upside-down writing and the mirror writing, which were not timed, one minute was allowed for each exercise. In all eight subjects (graduate students in psychology) served for these experiments, each subject taking the seven tests at least twice and in some instances three times. The general uniformity of the results warranted stopping this set of experiments with this limited number of tests.
In the discussion of the writing experiments it may be well to call attention at the outset to the physiological complexity of the movement. Physiologically writing is a highly complex activity involving the co-ordination of movements at six joints from the shoulder to the first joint of the fingers. With these movements, so intimately related to one another, must also be correlated the movements of the eyes and to an extent those of the head and body. Our problem is how these co-ordinations are controlled. It is to be observed at once that we are not immediately aware of any of the coordinations mentioned. It is only by reflection upon the act of writing that we become aware of them in any definite sense. Another palpable observation is the fact that writing involves fineness of movement and co-ordinations and therefore fineness of discrimination somewhere on the side of control, for it may with safety be assumed that sensory discrimination, conscious or unconscious, is directly related to accuracy and delicacy of movement and it is certainly conscious in some measure until the movement becomes habitual or automatic.
If then, with this delicacy of movement and fineness of sensory discrimination in mind, we ask what on a priori grounds is the sense organ that primarily controls such move-
- ↑ It is only fair to state that these experiments were complete before the publication of the somewhat similar ones of Dr. Downey mentioned in the preceding section.
