Handwriting performance in younger and older adults: age, familiarity, and practice effects

The main goals of 2 experiments on the aging of handwriting skills were to investigate (a) age differences in speed of handwriting performance, (b) effects of task familiarity on age differences in performance, and (c) effects of practice on age differences in performance. Younger adults performed r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPsychology and aging Vol. 8; no. 3; p. 360
Main Authors Dixon, R A, Kurzman, D, Friesen, I C
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 01.09.1993
Subjects
Adult
Age Factors
Aged
Aging
Female
Handwriting
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Pilot Projects
Psychomotor Performance
Surveys and Questionnaires
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Summary:The main goals of 2 experiments on the aging of handwriting skills were to investigate (a) age differences in speed of handwriting performance, (b) effects of task familiarity on age differences in performance, and (c) effects of practice on age differences in performance. Younger adults performed reliably faster than older adults on all tasks. An Age X Familiarity interaction in both experiments indicated that age differences were magnified for unfamiliar but attenuated for familiar tasks. In the second experiment, an Age X Trial interaction revealed that older adults improved at a faster rate than younger adults. Regressions with initial trial data indicated that the older were slower than the younger adults by a factor of about 1.6. With practice, however, this slowing factor was only 1.02. The results suggest that familiarity and practice play a role in speed of handwriting.
ISSN:0882-7974
DOI:10.1037/0882-7974.8.3.360