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PubMed1991

Knowing when to say when: a simple assessment of alcohol impairment.

The use of writing samples as indices of alcohol impairment was explored. Students at a campus fraternity party wrote a sentence and their signatures before and after consuming alcohol (in beer and mixed drinks). Later, undergraduate and graduate students attempted to discriminate between pre- and postparty handwriting samples. The average percentage of correct discriminations of entrance and exit writing samples was 83.7% for sentences and 67.5% for signatures, and the percentage of correct discriminations increased directly with the blood alcohol concentration of the partier who gave the writing sample. When a partier's blood alcohol concentration reached 0.15, all of the judges accurately discriminated 90% or more of the sentences, and 25 of the 28 judges correctly discriminated at least 80% of the signatures. All of the judges correctly discriminated at least 90% of the 18 sentences written by partiers with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.12 or more. Implications of these findings for reducing the risk of driving while intoxicated are discussed, as well as directions for follow-up research.

Accidents, Traffic↗
PubMed1977

Graphological signs for extraversion.

Graphological signs of extraversion were rated from handwriting samples of undergraduates (ns = 35 males, 31 females; 23 males, 20 females) and correlated with extraversion scores from an objective psychological test. No evidence was found for the validity of the graphological signs.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Dyslexia and classic pathognomic signs.

The classic pathognomic signs of dyslexia, such as reversals and rotations, appear to be associated with poor reading, not diagnosed developmental dyslexia. 26 8th and 9th grade dyslexia with poor perceptual/attentional ability were matched with 19 reading-retarded subjects with age-equivalent perceptual/attentional test scores for age, IQ, and degree of reading retardation and compared both with each other and with 96 adequate readers for reversals, rotations, insertions, substitutions, omissions, poor handwriting and visual ability on the Gray test, the WRAT Spelling Test, a writing task, and the star-tracing mirror test. On 46 of 49 variables, the dyslexia and retarded readers performed comparably. Together they made more classic errors and had lower achievement scores than the adequate readers on 44 of 49 variables. Classic errors clustered with poor reading but not diagnosed dyslexia. The hypothesis that reading acquisition trains perceptual test-taking ability is advanced.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1991

Mouth-writing by a quadriplegic.

Although the phrase, "handwriting is brainwriting," is commonly heard, there is little in the literature to support the statement. This case study of a 28-year-old quadriplegic woman briefly describes the disorder, its treatment, and her reaction to sudden disability. Writing pre- and postparalysis illustrates the similarities in slant, spacing, size, and idiosyncracies found when written by hand or by holding the pen in the mouth.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

The Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration--3R and teachers' ratings of written language.

For a sample of 73 learning-disabled children, the relationship between scores on the Developmental Test of Visual-motor Integration--3rd Revision and teachers' ratings of writing skills was investigated. After statistically removing the contribution of socioeconomic status, achievement, and intelligence, only handwriting was significantly related to scores on Beery's test. Given the limited diagnostic information provided by the test, psychologists are urged to select other measures in assessing students' writing skills.

Aptitude Tests↗
PubMed2000

Revision of texts with word-processing.

The aim of the research was to study the use of a word processor to improve writing and revising skill by 28 pairs of primary school children. Analysis confirmed greater difficulty in the drafting of texts than with traditional handwriting, but the increase in the number of words and errors does not imply improvement in lexical and orthographical aspects. The guided revision of texts on a word processor may support beginning writers' expression and, with increasing ease, allow them to use greater precision in the process of revision.

Child↗
PubMed2003

Ordering blood for the wrong patient--getting inside the minds of ordering physicians.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact on ordering errors when physicians stopped handwriting patient identifiers on requests for blood transfusion. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Physicians, frustrated by the amount of time required to complete paper forms to order blood, asked if the requirement for handwritten patient identifiers, which were in addition to such information "stamped" on blood requests, could be eliminated. We acquiesced to the request, modified the blood ordering forms accordingly, and continued to monitor ordering errors. RESULTS: After elimination of the handwritten identifiers in 1997, ordering errors increased from an annual rate of 1 in 10,000 to 6 in 10,000 blood requests by late 1999. We alerted the clinicians by newsletter, and the rate decreased somewhat (3 in 10,000 requests). However, the error rate did not decrease to its previous level of 1 in 10,000 requests until mid-2001, about 2 1/2 years after reinstitution of the requirement for handwritten patient identifiers. CONCLUSION: An obligatory second entry of demographic identifiers on a blood order requires ordering physicians to carefully consider the identity of the patient receiving a transfusion and reduces the likelihood of transfusion of an unintended recipient. Error management tools, such as a predetermined method for planning, reviewing, and documenting all changes, facilitate detection of trends and responses to corrective actions.

Academic Medical Centers↗
PubMed1990

Incidence of atypical pencil grasps among nondysfunctional adults.

Three groups of nondysfunctional adults were observed for atypical pencil grasps (i.e., nondynamic tripod grasps) used during functional writing situations: 58 occupational therapy students signing out equipment, 314 voters signing for their ballots, and 113 medical students taking a written examination. Among the total right-handed population, the most frequently used grasp was the dynamic tripod grasp (86%). The second most frequently used grasp was the lateral tripod grasp (10%). Other grasps were observed less often (less than 2% of the time). The surprisingly high incidence of the lateral tripod grasp suggests that this grasp may be considered a functional alternative to the traditionally accepted dynamic tripod grasp. Only 1% of the total sample showed immature grasp patterns (i.e., cross-thumb and static tripod grasps), thus indicating that most adults develop a mature grasp for functional handwriting.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1992

Fine motor activities in elementary school: preliminary findings and provisional implications for children with fine motor problems.

This study was designed to obtain a detailed picture of the fine motor requirements in regular elementary school classrooms. This knowledge is critical for occupational therapists in working with children with fine motor and handwriting problems who are main-streamed into regular classes. The allocation of time to fine motor activities and the types of fine motor tasks children are expected to perform in elementary school were investigated through the observation of six elementary school classrooms. A written minute-by-minute record of one whole day's activities in each classroom showed that 30% to 60% of the day was allocated to fine motor activities, with writing tasks predominating over other manipulative tasks. Implications for children with fine motor difficulties include the need for modifications to volume of work, types of tasks, and materials.

Apraxias↗
PubMed1998

Emergent componential coding of a handwritten image database by neural self-organisation.

This paper demonstrates the unsupervised discovery of localised components in real image data, using images of much larger size than the small fragments from which components have previously been extracted. The handwriting images used are also much more homogeneous than the random natural scenes used in earlier demonstrations, containing components of a specific size-scale and structure. Because of this homogeneity, the components found are not wavelets covering a range of size scales: instead, they correspond to line- and curve-segments made by the pen. The objective function that is optimised here encodes and reconstructs the data via a Markov process, and is also related to density modelling techniques. Several earlier theoretical and experimental results can also be attributed to the form of neuron used here, including the extraction of words from continuous speech and the discovery of unknown transformation invariances via the controlled breaking of dynamical symmetry.

Bayes Theorem↗
PubMed2000

Human arm movements described by a low-dimensional superposition of principal components.

A new method for analyzing kinematic patterns during smooth movements is proposed. Subjects are asked to move the end of a two-joint manipulandum to copy a smooth initial target path. On subsequent trials the target path is the subject's actual movement from the preceding trial. Using Principal Components Analysis, it is shown that the trajectories have very low dimension and that they converge toward a linear superposition of the first few principal components. We show similar results for handwriting on an electronic pen tablet. We hypothesize that the low dimensionality and convergence are attributable to combined properties of the internal controller and the musculoskeletal system. The low dimensionality may allow for efficient descriptions of a large class of arm movements.

Arm↗
PubMed1992

[Possibilities and limits of medical graphology. Determination of current status and perspectives (I)].

As is generally known, the writing movement reacts in a sensitive manner to numerous diseases, medications, stimulants and environmental poisons, as well as to psychic and physical influences. This reaction can occur quite early in the process. Therefore, laboratory data and the physical examination can be supplemented by the handwriting. The graphological analysis is particularly helpful in the following ways: early diagnosis, documenting the course of the disease, evaluating treatment, psychological relationships as well as the problems of old age. This review, presented in three parts, intends to demonstrate to the physician simple and time-saving possibilities, as well as analytical methods, that are most likely to promise success. This needs to be done by a competent graphologist.-Prejudices against graphological methods and exaggerated expectations will be reduced if proper information is presented.

Diagnosis, Differential↗
PubMed2005

Individuality of handwritten Arabic numerals in local population.

This paper reports the statistical study of writing habits for Arabic Numerals of 187 subjects in Hong Kong. A classification system of writing habits for Arabic numerals based on assigned codes of characteristic features such as slant, writing direction, relative position of strokes, angularity of turnings, shape of initial and ending strokes, etc. was developed. A set of characteristic codes representing the profile of writing habits pertaining to Arabic numerals was assigned to each writer. Apart from the distribution of characteristic features, statistical analysis of the assigned codes demonstrated homogeneity of individual hand-writing patterns. It has been shown that irrespective of the structural simplicity of Arabic numerals, no two individuals exhibited the same set of characteristic codes. The findings support the hypothesis of individuality in handwriting.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

The paediatric hospital medical record: a quality assessment.

The objective of this study was to assess the quality of the medical contribution to patient records in a children's department. It was carried out in a tertiary level teaching hospital. A structured audit of 100 randomly selected case records, with independent observers using a grading system for 3 of the measures, was performed. The outcome provides a comparison with the hospital's guidelines for case histories and notes. The results of this study show inadequate documentation of basic information. Communication was hindered by poor hand writing and the use of abbreviations. Overall comprehension of the course of the patients' illnesses was regarded as only fair to average. Recording of diagnosis and initial plans of management were present in over 70% of records. While discharge information was well recorded, the recommendation for the duration of drug therapy was inadequate. Mediocre handwriting and poor documentation are still prevalent in medical records. Strict supervision of this important area of medical practice is mandatory.

Child↗
PubMed2006

Communication of medication orders by telephone--"writing it right".

Communication is commonly cited as a contributing factor to adverse events causing patient harm (Baker et al., 2004). There are numerous ways and reasons that communication failures can occur, such as poor handwriting, transcription errors, lack of verification, lack of integration of information, and ineffective team functioning. Errors that can occur in critical care with the verbal communication and receipt of a telephone order will be highlighted. These examples, together with proposed strategies for improving telephone order safety, are intended to promote awareness and potential practice changes in the critical care environment.

Abbreviations as Topic↗
PubMed1991

Preclinical detection of motor and nonmotor manifestations.

The advent of possible protective therapies for Parkinson's disease has created a need for methods of diagnosing the disease before the clinical features become fully evident. As a number of motor and nonmotor manifestations of the disease emerge months to years before a diagnosis can be made, a battery of clinical tests might be sufficient to identify individuals at an earlier stage than is currently possible using the standard history and physical examination. A list of questions regarding possible risk factors, specific symptoms, and observations of family members could be combined in a self-administered questionnaire that might identify individuals with a high probability of early, but otherwise undiagnosable, Parkinson's disease. Identification of subtle motor features is another possible screening method. For example, handwriting and speech are commonly affected prior to diagnosis; thus, automated analysis of these motor actions might also provide detection of incipient disease.

Handwriting↗
PubMed1989

[A case of micrographia with the right hand due to left putaminal infarction].

Micrographia due to focal cerebral disorder is very rare. We described a patient with micrographia due to a left putaminal infarction. Following an infarction involving the left putamen and corona radiata, a 58-year-old right-handed man developed micrographia with the right hand, right facial palsy, right hand clumsiness and slight aphasia. Micrographia finally disappeared by the seventh month. No parkinsonian features were noted. Our case suggests that micrographia is a disorder of the motor control system of handwriting which exists in the contralateral putamen, and has no relation with extrapyramidal signs like rigidity, tremor or akinesia.

Agraphia↗
PubMed1988

Perception of dynamic information in static handwritten forms.

Handwriting recognition presents a problem for most theories of letter perception. How do people accurately discriminate letters given the variability in handwritten forms? We propose that perceivers detect and capitalize on information relating to production inherent in the static trace of the handwritten letter. In an "implicit detection" task, subjects' ability to detect stroke direction in a series of handwritten characters was found to be influenced by the particular drawing method used to generate the stimuli. Similar results were obtained in an "explicit detection" task in which the subjects were asked to speculate on the drawing method used to generate the samples. Our findings suggest that perceivers are able to extract information relating to production from the static trace. We propose that they can then use this information in conjunction with their knowledge of a common production process, shared by both producers and perceivers, to aid character recognition.

Form Perception↗