Spatial Analysis of Handwritten Texts as a Marker of Cognitive Control

ABSTRACT

We explore the idea that cognitive demands of the handwriting would influence the degree of automaticity of the handwriting process, which in turn would affect the geometric parameters of texts. We compared the heterogeneity of handwritten texts in tasks with different cognitive demands; the heterogeneity of texts was analyzed with lacunarity, a measure of geometrical invariance. In Experiment 1, we asked participants to perform two tasks that varied in cognitive demands: transcription and exposition about an autobiographical episode. Lacunarity was significantly lower in transcription. In Experiment 2, we compared a veridical and a fictitious version of a personal event. Lacunarity was lower in veridical texts. We contend that differences in lacunarity of handwritten texts reveal the degree of automaticity in handwriting.

Keywords:

• cognitive control
• cognitive load
• handwriting analysis
• lacunarity

Note

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank the reviewers, especially Brendan Weekes, for their suggestions and correction of the manuscript. This research was supported by Junta de Andalucía (Biomedical and Heath Science research projects PI-0410–2014 and PI-0386–2016).

Notes

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