Submovement Analysis in Learning Cursive Handwriting or Block Print1

Pen movements were recorded in healthy adults during learning of a sequence of vertical down strokes, a zigzag pattern, or a cursive-script pattern. The strokes had to be performed by moving the pen from target to target while visual feedback was offered via a computer monitor. The movement patterns were segmented into up and down strokes. Each stroke was segmented into primary and secondary submovements, i.e., a preprogrammed, ballistic part and a feedback controlled part, respectively. Results show that learning takes place during the course of 16 trials as the stroke duration decreased. Submovement analysis confirmed the usual increase in the relative duration and size of the primary submovement. However, this increase was observed only in the zigzag and the cursive writing patterns, which are continuous patterns, but not in the vertical down strokes, which is a discontinuous movement. This suggests that submovement analysis can be used to show learning effects in multi-stroke, continuous movement patterns.