Jiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiii Ed/Psych Lib. LB 1536 T37 [BRARY THE UNIVERSITY OF CAL IFORNIA LOS ANGELES PSYCHOLOGY AND PEDAGOGY OF WRITING ; Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing CJ // A Resume of the Researches and Experiments Bearing on the History and Pedagogy of Writing BY MARY E. THOMPSON, A.M., Pd.D. Haltimorr WARWICK AND YORK, INC. 1911 Copyright 1911 By WARWICK & YORK, Inc. Ed. /Psych. Library T37 CONTENTS. Preface 7 Chap. I. Introduction 11 Chap. II. Historical Development of the Alphabet . 15 Chap. III. Resume of the Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing .... 37 Chap. IV. Pedagogy of Writing' 81 Bibliography 121 Index 124 3003558 PREFACE. Years of practical teaching and supervision, the earnest study of psychology and its application to education, a wide observation of the school work being dbne by this and other nations, have all been potent forces in convincing me that the reason why practice lags so far behind principles in psychology is that the greater portion of the results ob- I tained by expert, psychological experimenters remains filed \ away on the research shelves of the libraries of our great ; universities, unknown and unread by the large mass of I educators. Our new psychology is in the nascent or forma- tive stage and the material still remains scattered and un- organized, so much so that only recently has any reliable author undertaken to glean, sift, organize and show the application of the most important principles of psychology to the teaching of the common school subjects. For years teachers have had their brains fairly satiated with method books evolved from the inner consciousness of this or the other author of uncertain psychological caliber. For convenience all method may be classed as: (1) his- torical, or doing as has been done before by others; (2) "trial and success," or hitting upon successful ways by nu-. merous trials of different methods of procedure, or follow- ing out those discovered by others; and (3) psychological method, based upon the study of children and their near and remote needs. Much of the psychological method may be found in the first two mentioned methods, but it is un- known to the mechanical, unintelligent teacher. 8 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. The historical method is the one commonly used by the non-progressive, untrained teacher who is too indifferent or mentally languid to even summon up courage to try something new. If the examples followed in the historical method have been set by a successful teacher, the results of the one copying these may be very satisfactory, but the teaching is in most instances blind imitation and deaden- ing to the future development of the teacher. Even so- called trained teachers graduating from normal schools and colleges use historical methods many times or rather their teaching is saturated, as it were, with the overwhelm- ing personalities and methods of certain teachers. Better far is it for teachers to have the way to the highest source of authority indicated to them, to get perspective, "sky," fundamental principles and inspiration and direction to forge ahead for themselves! Without the scientific atti- tude toward teaching, it is made to approach the narrow- ing, mechanical work of the clerk, the factory laborer, the miner. The wide-awake teacher will use the "trial and success" method and thus advance mentally and professionally, but the experimentation, made blindly many times, involves enormous waste of time, especially where large masses of children are to be advanced. The place for experimental method along psychological lines naturally falls to experi- mental schools and training departments where the groups are small and the work is supervised or done by thoroughly prepared teachers. Originality is a forceful characteristic, yet it may cause the work of the teacher to become the manipulation of a series of extraneous devices having no psychological foundation. The advantages, both to the teacher and child, of having methods based on the psychology of the present time and in the future advanced with the new facts of child nature Preface. 9 discovered are so self-evident as to require no explanation. Hence the teacher of today needs to be a student, keeping well abreast with the signs of the times in the psychological world, wide awake and alert to discover and make use of every important result obtained, to be interested in the large questions in education, to keep the psychological per- spective cleared of blinding routine and unintelligent method. Psychological truth has been so enlarged and changed during the last decade or two that a teacher who has not kept up with the progress made has inevitably be- come a Rip Van Winkle in education. Teachers are not usually willfully negligent of their pro- fessional duties; in fact quite otherwise, but the lack of time, heavy responsibility, weariness, lack of opportunity or not knowing what to read causes a lethargy, despoiling them of their psychological attitude of mind and future development as educators. Of all the common school subjects, writing has been the one most neglected and least understood by teachers. There has been much confusion and fumbling of methods .and little effort made to base the principles of teaching upon the laws of psychology. The present work attempts to gather from modern, scientific psychology, and espe- cially from recent investigations in genetic and dynamic psychology, all the principles bearing on handwriting, and to show the application of these to the teaching of writing. Numerous books are to be found upon this, that, or the other system of penmanship, but it remains for the present one to suggest and interest the reader in a larger, deeper, more scientific view of the whole subject of writing and in the new psychology still in the formative stage. It is hoped that this book will in some measure not only ac- quaint the reader with the results of the scientific study of voluntary movements and the antecedent of such move- 10 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. ments but be suggestive for further reading and thinking along other lines. To the up-to-date psychologist the material presented will not be at all new. For material I wish to thank the authors from whom I borrowed freely and gave due credit; for help and guidance I want to thank Dean Thomas M. Balliet and Dr. Paul Radosavljevich of New York Univer- sity, School of Pedagogy; for preparation to do the work, my efficient and able teachers in the psychological depart- ments of the Michigan State Normal College, Ypsilanti; the Michigan State University, Ann Arbor; Columbia Uni- versity, Teachers' College, and New York University, School of Pedagogy, New York City, have my sincere ap- preciation and thanks; and for giving me inspiration and earnest zeal, I affectionally thank my aged mother in whose sick room the greater part of this book was written, and with whom it is still my privilege to remain. M. E. T. Redford, Mich., March 8, 1911. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION. The Importance of Writing and Recent Interest Shoion in the Subject. Since the desire of communicating ideas seems to be deeply implanted in every human being, it is a question of great moment to study carefully the means of communica- tion. The two most usual modes of gratifying the desire for expression are, (1) by sounds addressed to the ear, and (2) by representations or marks exhibited to the eye; or, in other words, by speech and writing. The first method was rendered much more complete by the invention of the sec- ond, because by it was opened a door for the communica- tion of information through the sense of sight as well as by means of hearing. Speech may be thought of as the substance and writing as the shadow which followed it. Speech must be conceded to be the noblest acquisition of mankind, and writing the most useful art. Speech emi- nently distinguishes man from the brute creation; writing marks the difference between civilized mankind and un- civilized savages. It can readily be understood why this is so, for by writing our thoughts are perpetuated not only for ourselves, but best of all in an extensive, communica- tive way for the benefit of others. Without the art of writ- ing, the labors of our ancestors, in every branch of knowl- edge, would have been lost to us, and our own best thought contributions would fail to reach future posterity. The word-of-mouth method of communication gave us tradi- 11 12 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. tion, but not authentic history, as the latter can only be compiled from written material. By means of writing, painting, medals and sculpture all the successive improve- ments in philosophy, science and the arts have been brought about. In the common transactions of life, whether for profit or pleasure, intercourse would be very limited without the as- sistance of writing. By this art distance is, as it were, annihilated and business man, statesman and friend meet in regions the most remote. In these days of rapidly ad- vancing civilization and commercial activity, there are more demands made on the individual to express himself clearly and legibly in writing than ever before. Writing is only a tool of expression, but it is one that must be handled quickly and effectively. The writer needs to have complete command of the art of writing so that his entire attention may be placed upon the thought to be expressed rather than upon the form. In business it is absolutely essential that the mind be freed from all thought of technique of form, as a digression in thought or an ambiguous form may lead to great loss of time or money. The art of writing is as old as civilization itself; it is thought probable that in North Babylonia the pictograph stage had long been passed eight thousand years ago. We are told that seven thousand years ago in Egypt, Babylonia and Crete both reading and writing were already of hoary antiquity. The written word has always been of mysterious significance to the savage. Among such people, the person who could use symbols for communication was next to the gods; hence written language ministered to forms of wor- ship and remained in the hands of the church. In this way the currency of civilization and learning became written language; consequently the reverenced part of education has not been the sciences as first hand studies of reality, Introduction. 13 but language and books have been made the prominent constituents of the curriculum until very recent years. In our own day the inability to read and write stamps one as an ignoramus. The three R's, Reading, 'Kiting 'Rith- metic, that for so many years made up the curriculum of our common schools, show in what high estimation these subjects were held. With the incoming of the idea of uni- versal education after the Reformation, people were taught to read and write in order that they might be able to be- come intelligent readers of the Bible and other religious literature and be enabled to express their views in perma- nent form. Arithmetic was added to the curriculum for business purposes. At the present time, along with the multiplication of books and the great commercial pressure brought to bear upon mankind, writing has assumed a new importance. Circumstances and conditions no longer allow a person to write laboriously, slowly and imperfectly, as was the custom in the past, but business and economy of time demand that when one writes it must be at a high rate of speed and as legibly as possible. Since the child, instead of the subject-matter, has become the center of our educational system, and people have sought to understand the child's physical, intellectual and moral natures instead of judging these from the standpoint of those found in adult life, psychologists have directed their attention to experimental work; this is especially true of the past twenty years or more, before which time little reliable work was done. The study of voluntary movement, the formation of habit, fatigue, cross education, etc., have furnished an unusually attractive field for investigation by psychologists, and as a result much data has been given to the educational world upon which a more scientific peda- gogy may be based. It is with this thought in mind that the present writing has been undertaken. The methods for each important 14 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. school study should have a psychological basis and be put in such permanent form that teachers and supervisors of such subjects may be able to read and understand. Far too much of the data of experimental psychology is stowed away in fragmentary, technical form to be referred to by psychologists only; consequently actual practice is changed but little, and the great majority of teachers remain in ignorance of what has been done by psychologists to put education on a more scientific and economical basis. Dr. Huey, speaking of the need of a more scientific basis for each school subject and that the results obtained by experi- menting should be put in readable form for teachers, says: "Consider the need of this in the various branches. Not to mention writing, a branch in which there is perhaps the most of needless confusion and in which perhaps the great- est benefit would be derived from such a concentration of data " (24, Preface, p. 8.) In the following chapters it is proposed to trace out the development of the alphabet; to collate some of the best recent investigations bearing on the psychology of writing, and upon these as a basis to formulate and apply the edu- cational principles deduced therefrom. Many experiments have been performed, but the field has in no sense been fully covered, hence it remains for psychologists to care- fully carry on further investigations. The principal aims will be to tell what has been done, to collect the fragments, as it were, and after a careful estimation of the reliability and worth of these, to formulate from the results of the experiments taken up some pedagogical principles and show how these explain and suggest improvements in the present practice in penmanship. Such a gathering together of data bearing on the subject of writing has not before been undertaken, and it is with the hope that the following may, in a small way, prove effectual in improving the pre- vailing practice that the present work has been undertaken. CHAPTER II HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE ALPHABET. Theory of the Evolution of Language. In order to more fully understand and appreciate the development of writing one must go back to the earliest evolution of language itself, the sum and substance of writ- ing. Drummond writes that in order to fully appreciate the development of language we must take our places in the primeval forest with early man and put ourselves in touch with his real experiences and necessities. (14, p. 156.) Co-operation was one of the earliest principles to be hit upon in the course of evolution. Gregariousness was an established institution long before men had learned to form themselves into tribes and clans for mutual strength and service. The bees in hives, the ants in colonies, the birds in flocks and the wolves in packs are a few of the social types of today that are abundant and dominant in all parts of the world, indicating that the gregarious state has excep- tional advantages in the upward struggle. The most important advantage is the mental strength of a combination and the physical strength of numbers. For instance, every animal in the herd shares the observational powers of all the rest. If one animal hears a sound of danger, then that knowledge is shared in by all the other animals. Thus in helping one another to avert a crisis of danger, the value of this mutual aid is so great that gre- garious animals, although many times timid and defence- is 16 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing, less as individuals, have survived in abundant numbers to occupy the highest places in nature. The co-operative principle depends upon the ability of the members of the herd to communicate with each other. The signalling system if developed by one herd and not by another would give the herd possessing it the greater chance for survival; hence the evolution of the signal system. New circumstances and relations arising called for additions, and vocal, visible, audible came into use. Drummond gives this example: "When a deer throws up its head suddenly, all the other deer throw up their heads. That is a sign. It means 'listen.' If the first deer sees the object which has called its attention to be suspicious, it utters a low note. That is a word. It means 'caution.' If next it sees the object to be not only suspicious, but dan- gerous, it makes a further use of language-intonation. Instead of the low note 'listen,' it utters a sharp loud cry that means 'run for your life.' Hence these three kinds of language a sign or gesture, a note or word, an intona- tion." (14, p. 158.) EVOLUTION OF WRITING. Writing has evolved, it is thought, through the same gen- eral stages as the evolution of speech. First there was the gesture language, corresponding to the signaling system spoken of in connection with the herd, that was used by primitive man as a means of communicating with his fel- lows; next there was the onomatopoetic, or growl writing, ideographs, in which forms of actual objects were imitated as in the Egyptian hieroglyphics, the picture of a man was drawn to represent the idea of man, etc. This is the note or word stage found in the evolution of language. Grad- ually intonation was added accent for extra meaning or extra emphasis; this stage in its earlier development is well Historical Development of the Alphabet. 17 illustrated in the Chinese representation of complex ideas, and will be explained later. "The really important factor in human progress has not been so much the discovery of a method by which words can be recorded as it has been the invention of some facile graphic device, such as the alphabet, by means of which the art of writing can be so far simplified as to become at- tainable before the years of adolescence have been passed." (41, p. 4). A people may possess the art of writing without the knowledge of an alphabet, but such a system of non- alphabetic writing will either be so limited in its power of expression as to be of little practical value, or else it will be too difficult, complicated and unsuitable for general use. The methods of writing used by the Egyptians, Assyrians and Chinese go to prove that without the alphabet any complete system for the graphic representation of speech is an acquirement so difficult as to demand the labor of a lifetime. Under such conditions, science and religion necessarily tend to remain the exclusive property of a sacerdotal caste; extended national culture becomes impos- sible. Thus a system of writing instead of being the most effective means of progress may become instead one of the most powerful means of enslaving the masses of mankind. The invention of the alphabet in its present form has proved to be the most difficult enterprise which the human intellect has ever undertaken. In the words of Dr. Taylor: "To achieve the letters as we know them has taxed the in- tellect of the three most gifted races of the ancient world. It was begun by the Egyptians, continued by the Semites, and finally perfected by the Greeks." (41, p. 4.) The hieroglyphic writing of the Egyptians, although it is the source of all existing alphabets, is far from being the only graphic system invented or the only one which attained the alphabetic stage of development. Various 18 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. races have succeeded in inventing methods of writing en- tirely independently of one another. The characteristic fact to be remembered is that the starting point and the general direction of development have been the same; i. e., all systems of writing have been found to have had their beginnings in rude pictures of objects; these pictures, be- coming conventionalized, more or less gradually came to be used to represent words, and later became the symbols of more or less complex and abstract thoughts. It is now our purpose to inquire into the primitive forms of writing from which all alphabets are the abbreviated descendants, to instance similar stages found among the nations of today, and to show how our own alphabet has reached such a high stage of perfection. After a careful survey of the long period covered by the development of writing, we are enabled, for the sake of convenience and brevity, to arbitrarily divide the whole into three stages: 1. The Mnemonic, or Memory-aiding. 2. Ideograms: (1) Pictures of Objects. (2) Pictorial Symbols or Words. 3. Phonograms: (1) Verbal Signs. (2) Syllabic Signs. (3) Alphabetic Signs. 1. THE MNEMONIC STAGE. In this some tangible object is used as a message, or for record, between people living at a distance from each other, and also for the pur- pose of accrediting the messenger. This stage borders on and anticipates the symbolic stage of expression. Good examples of the mnemonic are the "quipus" or knotted cords, still used by the Puna herdsmen of the Peruvian Historical Development of the Alphabet. 19 plateaux to register their herds, and also by the Paloni Indians of California in business transactions. The history of the "quipu" is a long one; the idea being still with us in both the rosary upon which the Roman Catholics count their prayers, and in the knot tied in our handkerchief to help our weak memory, as well as in the sailor's log-line. The device was of widespread use, reach- ing its most elaborate form among the ancient Peruvians, from whose lan- guage the term "quipu," mean- ing knot, is borrowed. The figure below (taken from The Story of the Alphabet, p. 37, by Clodd) will give an idea of the form. To the main cord at given distances are fastened thinner cords of different colors, each cord being knotted in divers ways to represent special purposes and each color having a peculiar significance of its own, i. e., red strands stood for soldiers, yellow for gold, white for silver, green for corn, etc., while the meaning of a single knot was ten, two single knots twenty, double knot one hundred, two double knots two hundred. Be- u, for reckoning, &c. sides being 8. convenience in reckoning, they were 20 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. used for keeping the annals of the empire of the Incas, for sending orders, for preserving records of the dead, as in old Egypt, etc. At the present time small cords are used by the native tribes of Ardrah in West Africa; while other African tribes have devised message sticks similar to the well-known native Australian type. More highly developed knot- reckoning is found among the Mexican Zuni, and in more primitive form among some of the North American In- dians. A generation ago the Hawaiian tax-gatherer kept account of the assessable property throughout the island on cords from four to five hundred fathoms long. The Chinese used knotted cord prior to the invention of writ- ing, and its use is also found depicted in Egyptian hiero- glyphics. In 1834 the Houses of Parliament were de- stroyed through the overheating of stoves burning up an accumulation of tally-sticks that had been used to keep the accounts of persons lending money to the government. In Scotland fifty years ago the baker boy made a notch on his "nick-stick" for every loaf of bread left on his rounds (9, p. 41). Thus it will be seen that the use of objects for recording was almost universal in the distant past and still survives in some measure. Because of our familiarity with the wampum of the North American Indian, little need be said on the subject. The use of wampum belts is not widespread. The belts consist of hand-made beads or perforated shells arranged in various more or less conventionalized patterns on bark filament, hemp or deerskin strips or sinews, the ends being selvedged by sinews or fibers of hemp. The pat- terns are usually pictorial symbols recording events in the history of the tribes or treaties between tribes. The Penn belt shown below (taken from Clodd's Story of the Alphabet, p. 46, and preserved in the archives of the His- torical Society of Pennsylvania) derives its name from Historical Development of the Alphabet. 21 the tradition that it is the identical belt given probably in 1701 to William Penn by the Iroquois in confirmation of the friendly relations then established between them. The design, as does the average belt of this kind, ap- proaches the ideographic stage of writing and represents two figures, one an Indian grasping a white man's hand (as evidenced by the wearing of a hat). The oblique bands are the symbols of the federation of Iroquois known as the "Five Na- tions." "The Iroquois league is spoken of wampum. in their Book of Rites as Kanastat-sikowa, the great framework. It is this mighty structure which, when the belt in question was given, overshadowed the greater part of North America, that was indicated by the rafters, shown as oblique bands." (21, p. 244.) 2. IDEOGRAMS. These are pictures intended to rep- resent either things or thoughts. They are of two kinds: (1) Pictures, or actual representations of objects, and (2) pictorial symbols suggesting abstract ideas. "The earliest record which we possess of any actual event is the scene depicted on a fragment of an antler, which was found in the rock shelter at Langerie Basse in Auvergne. It por- trays a primeval hunter covered with long hair creeping up to a gigantic urus feeding in the grass, and he is seen in the very act of casting a spear at his unsuspecting enemy (23, p. 16). Dr. Hoffman thinks that primitive man, in his attempt to record and transmit graphically his thoughts, selected such objects within his environment as were most frequently encountered in his struggle for existence, i. e., simple representations of animals and birds would be drawn to indicate success in hunting, or, depicted upon some conspicuous rock, notify others that the game 22 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. represented by the picture was to be found in that local- ity (23, p. 1). Clodd writes: "The necessity of identifying personal as well as tribal property, especially in land and live stock, led to the employment of various characters, more or less pictographic, which have their representatives in signaries used in ancient commerce and in manufactur- ers' trade-marks" (9, p. 46). In the marks used for branding cattle, Prof. Ernst of Caracas believes that he can recognize survivals of Indian writing. The same author states that in tattooing, aside from its symbolic and religious significance marking the connection of the man with his clan-totem or individual-totem and also its deco- rative purpose, there is also a utilitarian purpose. It is known that certain tribes of the Red Indians tattoo both sexes so that the captured individual may be identified and ransomed in case of war (23, p. 2). The grave of a chief is indicated by his totem scratched upon a slab; tribal boundaries are marked by stones en- graved with the totem of the tribe. The very curious records on the Pictish stones of Scotland; the pictures on the magic drums of the Laplanders; the drawings found on rocks in Australia, Siberia, Peru and Arabia not only show how keenly men of different races have striven to record their thoughts and to leave behind them some last- ing memorials of their deeds, but these drawings are also of value in proving the essential similarity of the means used by different people to give effect to their desires. A further extension of the system of picture writing became possible when it was discovered that complex ideas could be conveyed by combinations of simple ideo- grams. Thus, in the primitive Chinese writing we find a "wife" is denoted by the combination of the conventional- ized pictures of a "woman" and a "broom," and the verb "to love" is expressed by the pictures of a "woman" and a "son." Historical Development of the Alphabet. 23 3. PHONOGRAMS. The next advancement appeared in the form of rebus, or image writing (designated by Dr. Britton as ikonomatic), in which several objects were combined. The form of conundrum called the rebus is an example of the simplest kind of phonograms. In the rebus the picture of an object is taken to denote any word or part of a word which has the same sound as the name of the thing pictured. It is thought to be true that the reason why children like rebus writing now so much is that at about a certain age they, too, as the race has, pass through this stage of development. If, like the ancient Egyptians, we were to adopt a circle with a central dot as our ordinary written symbol for the sun, then we would have a pure ideogram, but if we were to go on, and, after the Egyptian or Chinese methods, were to use the same symbol to express also the word "son," we should have a phonogram of that primitive type which has re- peatedly served to bridge over the gap between picture ideograms and phonetic characters. It is thought prob- able that the adoption of the important step by which the advance was made from ideograms to phonograms arose out of the necessity of expressing proper names (23, p. 22). The script of the ancient Mexican supplies examples of the change from the pictographic to the phonetic stage. For example, the name of one of the kings was Itzcoatl, or "Knife-Snake," and the name was sometimes written as in the first figure, the stone knives on the back of the snake were known by the name of (itzli), while the snake's name was Coatl. At other times the name was written as shown in the second figure, the first syllable, itz, being represented by a weapon, itz(tli), the lower character, and above this appears, not the 24 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. head of a snake, but instead an earthen pot, co(mitl), surmounted by the sign for water a (tl). The two latter pictures were used to suggest a total sound, the name of the object entirely unlike either pictures (42, p. 94). Phonograms are the graphic symbols of sounds. As a usual thing they have arisen out of conventionalized ideo- grams which have been taken to represent sounds instead of things. In the case of Chinese characters we find the most notable instance of a graphic system which has never succeeded in advancing beyond the most rudimentary stage of conventionalized picture writing. Through research it has been found that when the intricate and queer Chinese characters are traced back to their earliest types, they are found to be conventionalized forms descended from rude pictures to which they now bear little or no resemblance, i. e., Kiuen, a "dog," is denoted by the character^, and mu, "wood," by/fc. These two characters present a much closer resemblance to each other than either of them possess to the object whose name it bears. Yet the diffi- culty disappears when these characters are traced back to their earliest forms. The character for mu, "wood," was originally written JfJ or ^p;, a form in which the rep- resentation of a tree, with its branches, trunk and roots, can be plainly recognized. In the other case we find the character for kiuen, "a dog," takes the form ft, 4| , and ^v, in which it is not difficult to perceive a rude outline intended for the picture of a dog (41, p. 20). The whole forty thousand words found in the Chinese dictionary are represented by symbols standing for sound-words, phono- grams, together with determinatives as keys to the precise meaning to be attached to the phonograms, e. g., the sound pa has eight distinct significations, that is, there are eight different words which are thus pronounced. One of the Historical Development of the Alphabet. 25 phonograms which expresses the sound pa is (Jl , the orig- inal of which c*' is apparently the picture of the tail of some animal. When this phonogram is used in conjunc- tion with the key of plants the symbol denotes a banana tree; with the key of iron it signifies a war-charm; with the key of sickness it means a scar; with the key for mouth it stands for a cry, and so on for the other four meanings which the sound may have (41, pp. 26-27). The Chinese language is a language of roots; it has no terminations to denote number, case, tense, mood or person; the same word, without change of form, may be used as a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb or a participle. It is a monosyllabic language, consisting almost entirely of homo- phones, that is, the same articulation has to do duty for several widely different words, hence the use of "keys," "radicals," or "primitives," as they are called. In the Egyptian and Cuneiform these "keys" are called "deter- minatives." In the English language one learns which meaning is to be conveyed by the aid of variant spelling, e. g., rite, write, right, wright. In order to be able to write an ordinary business letter in the Chinese language one would have to commit to memory some six or seven thousand of these groups of characters. It has been found that a diligent Chinese student of twenty-five years of age has barely acquired the same amount of facility in reading and writing as that attained by an American child at the age of ten; hence in China and in other countries not possessing an alphabet, few people learn to read and write, and these few are known as the learned caste. Syllabism, the next stage in the progress of writing, finds its best illustration in the development of the Jap- anese writing out of the Chinese. About the third century A. D., at the time of the great eastern extension of the Buddhist f*ith, the Japanese came into contact with the 26 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. civilization of China, and obtained a knowledge of the characters in which the Chinese literature was written. The Japanese language was polysyllabic, and the Chinese characters, which are verbal phonograms, could only be used for the expression of the polysyllabic Japanese words by being treated as syllabic signs. A number of charac- ters sufficient to constitute a syllabary having been se- lected, it was found that the whole apparatus of "keys" might be rejected. Here, however, the development has stopped. It seems strange that a people as ingenious and inventive as the Japanese would not, during the one thou- sand years that have elapsed since the introduction of the Chinese characters, develop their syllabary into an alpha- bet. The fact that such a development has not taken place is sufficient to show that the working out of an alphabetic principle of writing is not as easy or obvious a matter as might be supposed. It might be noted in passing that now when the Japanese have come in contact with Western civilization and have discovered how convenient and simple the Roman alphabet is, a movement to substitute it for the native syllabary has sprung up. Authorities who have made a careful study of the matter have come to the conclusion that there is a general law governing the advance from one stage in the development of writing to the next. A next higher stage is only attained by the transmission of a graphic system from one nation to another. In addition to the example just cited, the transmission of the Aztec hieroglyphics to the Mayas of Yucatan, of the Egyptian hieroglyphics to the Semites, and the thrice-repeated transmission of the Semitic alpha- bet to Aryan nations to the Greeks, to the Persians and to the Indians, are facts confirming this general rule. The best example of this general law is found in the case of the repeated transmission of the Cuneiform writing. It was invented by the Accadians, a Turanian people, and Historical Development of the Alphabet. 27 transmitted to the Semitic Assyrians and Babylonians; while out of the Semitic Cuneiform arose on the one hand the Turanian Proto-Medic syllabary, and on the other, the Cuneiform alphabet of the Aryan Persians (41, p. 39). Alphabetic signs or letters represent the elementary sounds into which the syllables can be resolved. How their development came about will become clear and under- standable during the following treatment of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. The earliest extant inscription in the world is a tablet now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, which was erected by Sent, a king of the second dynasty, to the memory of Shera, who appears to have been his grandson. M. Matiette's chronological scheme places the date at about 4700 B. C. This affords conclusive proof that even at that date the hieroglyphic writing was already an extremely ancient graphic system with long ages of previous development stretching out behind it. The Egyptian hieroglyphics, like every other primitive mode of writing, began with picture ideograms, many of which con- tinued to be used to the very last. Abstract ideas which could be directly represented, were expressed by means of symbolic pictures, e. g., battle Q^i, by two arms, one hold- ing a shield and the other a javelin. The next stage of development must have been that the primitive ideographic sign gave place to the verbal phonogram, and then later these verbal phonograms came to be used as syllabic signs; finally these syllabic signs were combined so as to form compound phonograms on the principle of the rebus. Egyptian writing also contained alphabetic symbols out of which our alphabet has grown. In the inscription of King Sent, three of these alphabetic characters are em- ployed to spell the monarch's name, which reads (41, p. 60). "Two of our English letters, n and d, are derived in strict historical filiation from two of the alphabetic signs, WWA 'and <= ^ :; ', by means of D 28 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. which the name of King Sent is expressed. Alphabetic symbols on the Egyptian monuments go to show that the letters of the alphabet are older than the pyramids older probably than any other existing monument of human civilization, with the possible exception of the signs of the zodiac" (41, p. 61). The Babylonians, Assyrians, the Medes and the Japanese succeeded only in passing through the syllabic stage, while the oldest hieroglyphic records of the Egyptians had already advanced to the great conception of alphabetic writing. Symbols for vowel sounds are found in the syl- labaries of these nations, but the more difficult conception of a consonant was not even approached. The notion of a consonant, a sound that cannot be sounded except in conjunction with some other sound, different from itself, is very difficult; it involves the analysis of the syllable into its ultimate phonetic elements. Canon Taylor states: "All that remained to be done was to take one simple step boldly to discard all the non-alphabetic elements, at once to sweep away the superfluous lumber" (41, p. 68). This step they never took, but continued to use eye-pic- tures side by side with that of ear-pictures, instead of advancing to the use of fixed signs for certain sounds (9, p. 115). Even at the present time we still continue to use phono- graphic and ideographic signs to a considerable extent. Grotefend claims that several of the Roman numerals are ancient ideograms. I, II, III, may be regarded as pictures of fingers, and it is probable that V was at first a picture of the fork of the hand, the fingers collected and the thumb apart, so that VV or X represents the two hands, while IV and VI would be a picture of the hand with the sub- traction or addition of a finger. In technical writing such terms as T-square and S-hook and phrases such as "Q before clock 4 minutes," and " D rises at 8 h. 30 min.," Historical Development of the Alphabet. 29 survive to show that even in the midst of the highest European civilization the spirit of the earliest and rudest form of writing is not yet quite extinct. The zodiacal and planetary signs used by astronomers are also ideo- grams, e. g., the symbol $ is the caduceus of Mercury en- twined by two serpents, ? is the mirror of Venus with its handle, and cf is the shield and spear of Mars. Other ideo- grams used by us are the crown and the broad arrow, sundry trade marks and armorial bearings, together with several printers' signs, such as Jglr 3 , ! and =. Certain shop signs, such as the barbers' pole with its spiral band- ages, which is a significant ideogram of the blood letter; the three golden balls of our pawnbrokers is a curious survival of the boluses which denoted the ancestral calling of the Florentine family of the Medici. In . s. d. we have characters of alphabetic origin used simply as convenient phonograms standing for the words "pounds," "shillings" and "pence." &c.,, ?, $, Ibs., cwt. belong to the same class. Most of the Arabic numerals are degraded forms of Semitic letters; while the successive forms of ET show that the algebraical sign -)- is a contraction of the Latin word et, as is of minus (41, p. 81). ORIGIN OF THE ALPHABET. The immediate parentage of our English alphabet is not difficult to determine, as our Roman capitals are practically identical with letters employed at Rome in the third cen- tury B. C., such as are seen in the well-known inscriptions on the tombs of Scipios. It has been found that the primitive alphabet of Rome was derived from a local form of the Greek alphabet prevailing in Boeotia and Euboea 30 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. about the sixth century B. C. This Eubcean alphabet is thought to have been introduced into Italy by means of colonies from Chalcis which were established in Sicily and also in central Italy at Cumae and Neapolis. The Chal- cidian alphabet was a variety of the archaic alphabet of Greece, judging from the numerous inscriptions, the earl- iest of which may probably belong to the eighth or ninth century B. C. The classical writers agree in attributing the invention of letters to the Phoenician, from whose trading posts in the jgean they were obtained by the Greeks. Herodotus says: "The Phoenicians introduced into Greece the knowl- edge of letters, of which, as it seems to me, the Greeks had heretofore been ignorant" (41, pp. 70-74). An examinataion of the alphabet, however, gives evi- dence through the names, number, order and form that they are of Semitic origin. The very word alphabet is derived from the names of the two letters alpha and beta, which stand at the head of the Greek alphabet and which are plainly identical with the names aleph and beth borne by the corresponding Semitic characters. In Greek these names mean nothing, but they are significant Semitic words, aleph denoting an "ox," and beth a "house" (41, p. 75). By some authorities, as Taylor, the Semitic alpha- bet is considered the source from which all existing alpha- bets have been derived. Down to a very recent time the classical tradition was very generally discarded, and the origin of the alphabet was thought to be by the highest authorities an unsolved problem. Now scholars seem to agree not only as to the source of the Semitic alphabet, but also as to the special place, mode and period in which it must have originated. A French Egyptologist, Emanuel de Rouge, in 1859, was the first to formulate a theory of the origin of the alpha- Historical Development of the Alphabet. 31 bet. M. de Rouge refers the origination of the Semitic alphabet to the period of five or six centuries during which a race of Semitic kings ruled in Delta. His method of investigation began by determining the oldest known forms of the Semitic letters. For comparison with these he selected such of the Egyptian hieratic characters as were used at the time the Semitic people occupied Delta, and as a result he found that the primitive form of almost every Semitic letter can be easily and naturally deduced from the form of its normal hieratic prototype. It is said that the secret of his success in solving the problem lay in the fact that he sought for the immediate prototype of the Semitic letters not in the Egyptian hieroglyphics, as many before him had done, but among the cursive char- acters which the Egyptians had developed out of their hieroglyphics and which were employed for literary and business purposes (41, p. 88). The origin of the alphabet has been placed in time as being between the 23d and 17th centuries, possibly the 19th century, says de Rouge. Recent investigations, particularly the excavations in Crete, reported by Sir Arthur Evans (15, pp. 270-372), seem to establish the fact that Greece is far older than has been thought, and that a flourishing civilization existed in the ^Egean at least as early as 3000 B. C., with centers in Crete and probably later in Mycenae; also that there was close intercourse between this civilization and that of Egypt about 2500 B. C. The vEgean script, according to these investigations, seems to have been in use long before Phoenicia existed, and as Phoenician history only goes back to about 1600 B. C., Phoenicia's chance for com- mercial importance seems only to have come with the fall of Mycensn civilization. However this may be, we know that Phoenicia was domi- nant in the Mediterranean, and probably took, for business 32 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. purposes, the alphabet material that was to be found and gave to it a more practical form. No one can perhaps judge just how much was taken from the cursive writing of the Egyptians or how much was obtained from other sources, yet we are sure that it is possible to trace the 1 ecrpri/ifi />iT CltN c a f CK LATfH (Iftn I Eag'.e . . & A A A \ a A A \aa N 2 Crane . . ^ ^ * B R /3 & B B b 3 3 Throne . . H s 7 7 r r J~V < C (ccsg 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Hand . . es *> A A A A B \> D b^d *r Maiander . rn m ^ ^ E e e t E ee Ji Cerastes ^ . *Co_ ,> s y YF F * F ff n Duck . . & t J t I z ZC t Z z } Sieve . . G? 8 I H H M B H hh n Tongs . . <=: tea. e #$ b Parallels . \\ y \ r 1 1 L I 1 ' J IT 12 13 14 Bowl . . <^ A 1 ^ K K K K. K K k 3 Lioness . . ^ L \/ A A A t L 1 ) * Owl . & ^ "7 M A M M-/U r /^ Yod hand X t Iota i 10 20 k 3 Kaph palm of hand XI K Kappa k 30 t h Lamed ox-goad XII \ Lambda I 30 40 m Mem waters XIII n Mu m 40 50 n j Nun fish XIV V Nu n 60 60 8 D Samekh post XV [Xi] X 60 70 'a y 'Ayin eye XVI 0-micron Q 70 80 P D Pe mouth XVII Tf Pi f 80 90 is Tsade javelin ? XVIII % [San] caret 900 100 1 > Qoph knot? XIX t, Koppa caret 90 200 r 1 Kesh head XX P Rho r 100 300 sli D Shin teeth XXI IT [Sigma] a 200 400 t n Tau mark XXII T Tau t 300 Historical Development of the Alphabet. 35 the crook. And while the later Greek rejected Q, the Latin retained it" (9, pp. 195-6). The Romans used two sorts of characters, capitals and cursive, in the early empire. The capitals were square- shaped, and were used for inscriptions and other writing demanding prominence, as we use capitals now, borrowing the old Roman forms. The cursive or running characters are the originals of our small types, and were used for correspondence and other purposes where rapid writing was the object. Both Y and Z were late importations from the Greek into the Latin, being previously used only in Greek loan- words to denote sounds peculiar to the Greek; hence be- cause of their late introduction they were placed at the end of the alphabet. Some of our letters are of no more use to us than they were to the Romans, i. e., Q and X, and K makes C super- fluous. As a consequence we have only twenty-three let- ters to represent at least thirty-two sounds. Thus we see that our alphabet, like our spelling, which is at war with our pronunciation to the bewilderment of school children and foreigners, is what it is because of the lack of any consistent rule (9, p. 200). A word may be added as to the direction of writing, and how it came to be from left to right, as we have it now. It has been found by investigation of the Moabite Stone, discovered in 1868 by Dr. Klein during his travels in Moab, that the Semitics wrote from right to left. After the alphabetic characters were brought into Greece the direction of the writing was modified, and among the Athenians it took the serpentine form, running around the material written upon. Later the plough-wise writing, proceeding alternately from right to left and from left to right just as oxen when ploughing draw the alternate 36 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. furrows in opposite directions came to be the prevailing one. Finally, the more convenient habitude prevailed, all the lines being written from left to right. The change of direction was plainly effected by a process of very gradual development, and must have occupied a lengthened period of time. This historical treatment has only been intended to be suggestive of the general method in which our alphabet developed, and to give a general insight into the stages through which any alphabet must pass before it can reach its highest state of perfection. CHAPTER III. RESUME OF THE EXPERIMENTS BEARING ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WRITING. Analysis of the subject (1) NEUROLOGICAL ANALYSIS. ANTECEDENT OF VOLUNTARY MOVEMENT. In order to clearly understand voluntary movement one must go back to a study of the nervous system itself. The whole nervous system is usually divided into (a) the funda- mental portion, or that which man possesses in common with lower animals and which is well developed in the child at birth, and (b) the accessory part or that part which has been superadded during the course of evolution. This new part differentiates the nervous system of man from that of the highest of the lower animals, and it is either not present in the human embryo or exists only in an embryonic condition. Man has acquired erect posture, movements of the hands as organs of prehension, move- ments of the voice and articulation, facial expression, etc. (39, p. 1). All complex movements are acquired con- siderably after birth. Ross, about 1880, was the first per- son to distinguish the parts of the nervous system by use of the terms fundamental and accessory (37, p. 21). The more fundamental and older racial movements appear before the newer and less fundamental regardless of the order of complexity, except in so far as the accessory as a rule tend to be more complex than the fundamental (8, p. 39). 37 38 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. Flechsig's investigations have shown that the fibers con- nected with the centers that control reflexly the funda- mental movements are medullated before birth, while on the other hand fibers connected with the higher centers are not medullated (16, p. 113). It is generally accepted that when a nerve fiber acquires its fatty sheath or becomes medullated, it is then functionally mature; the sheath serving about the same purpose as the rubber covering does to the electric wire it surrounds prevents wasteful radiation of the nerve current. One of the conditions emphasized by modern psychology as a requisite for active attention is preparedness, or muscular tension. The present most generally accepted theory of the control of the muscles was presented by Dr. Hughlings Jackson, in about 1872, and is known as the Three-Level-Theory of the nervous system (39, p. 3). The lowest level consists of the nerve cells of the spinal cord, medulla and pons; the movements on this level would be such vital movements as those pertaining to the circu- lation of the blood, respiration, digestion, crying, etc. The grasping acts of infants immediately after birth, such as hanging on to a rod or finger and supporting the weight of the body, belong to this level. Although the child at birth can grasp a rod and support itself, yet it has no con- trol over such movement and usually loses this power after a few days. "This sensori-motor apparatus is perfectly organized before birth and the sensori-motor action is typically automatic (39, p. 5). The middle level includes the basal ganglia of the brain, and also the sensory centers of hearing, sight, and the other special sense ganglia. Impressions from the periph- ery are not sent directly to these centers, but through the ganglia of the lowest level, and the movements controlled by these centers are controlled through the centers of the Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 39 lowest level. Grasping an object, removing an offensively smelling object, and such other movements as higher ani- mals, some imbeciles, and young normal children perform without much thought, are examples of movements of this middle level. The highest level claimed hypothetically the remaining portion of the brain. Control is exercised over each part of the body by each level and each level is both sensory and motor; consequently the motor areas in the brain must have sensory cell elements and the highest centers must have motor elements (39, p. 6). It has been found that the most simple nervous arrangements, centers, and levels are the most organized, while the most complex is the least organized. It is well that this is so, for if the centers of the highest level were highly organized, there could be little modification effected, and as a result few acquirements could be made or adaptations to new circum- stances brought about. A study of the ascent in the hierarchy of control shows that the movements become gradually more complex, more definitely under control, more fully co-ordinated and inte- grated, thus following the lines of evolutionary develop- ment; in other words, the same muscles are controlled by these three different levels. For example, the new-born babe seems to use just the same muscle to grasp the pencil reflexly as does the child of six months when he grasps the pencil to pull it towards himself, and as you would do should you grasp your pencil voluntarily. . With many other movements it is the same; that is, after their appearance in reflex use, if they advance beyond this stage, they can only become compounded or rather complexed. By investigations carried on by Mosso (34, p. 383), it was found that the nerve fibers necessary to the control of movement by the higher centers are not medullated at 40 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. birth; while Flechsig (16, p. 123) found that the direction of growth of medullation was not from the highest cere- bral centers toward the periphery, but rather, through the mediation of the medulla, in the opposite direction. This naturally leads to the conclusion that the development of these higher centers comes through the movements in the periphery, and consequently that "we move voluntarily not because we think, but rather we are led to think voli- tionally because we have moved (39, p. 107). In the words of Dr. Mosso: "In man the brain develops later than in all other animals because his muscles also develop later" (34, p. 383). Movement, it is believed, produces development of nerv- ous substance. An experiment showing the development of the center from the periphery was tried in which an idiot's hand was trained. The experiment was carried out to determine whether the cortical centers for more proxi- mal joints, such as the shoulder in contrast to the elbow, tend to relatively speedy organization, and hence be- come in some degree a thoroughfare for impulses con- trolling more distant groups (12, p. 547). The teacher began the training of the idiot's hand from the shoulder by movements which starting from the elevators of the arms would involve successively the muscles of the arm and hand. By a series of such operations, whose willed or obedient starting point descended gradually from the spine, the child became capable of moving his hand and fingers, first by imitation and later for simple willed operations. Other experiments have been tried to show that the excitation of the senses and impulses to movement hasten the development of the nerves that are implicated. Held, Ambronn and others tried the experiment of opening one eye of a new-born kitten, and found that the optical fibers Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 41 of the eye stimulated by the light was more quickly sur- rounded with myelin than those of the other. In some cases this caused soreness of the eyes opened, but as none of the animals experimented upon were allowed to live afterwards, it is impossible to draw any meaningful con- clusion as to what would have been the permanent result of the excitation and forced development upon the general health of the eyes opened (34, p. 384). In the case of the new-born child the movements are nearly all fundamental; reflex, automatic, instinctive, and random. After a while, when he gets to be perhaps three months old, he responds to sight, sound, etc., the move- ments being controlled more fully by the centers of the middle level. By the time he is a year old, or before, he sometimes acts with volition and seems to decide what he will do. Chronologically movement seems to advance from the fundamental towards the accessory, and yet the lowest level constantly controls many actions of the child. For example, the child does not need to think of how to take a step after the learning process is over and has been perfected by practice. The reason is that the accessory movements used in walking have gradually changed from accessory control of the highest level to that of the middle and toward that of the lowest, consequently many of the walking movements have come under the control of the spinal cord. In the same way the movement used in writing should pass from the control of the highest level to that of the lowest. "Devolution." In old age or general paralysis the higher centers are attacked first, and a person is not able to exe- cute the delicate, finer movements. "As old age increases and disease spreads downward, these more general, more complex, more precise movements pass away, layer by layer, as it were, going from the accessory to the funda- mental, from the peripheral to central, from the product 42 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. of latest evolution to those of oldest" (39, p. 108). For example, the art of writing is lost before the appreciable loss of the fundamental movements of the hand. BRAIN AREAS. It is known that certain of the cortical areas are functionally connected with sense organs from which they receive stimuli, i. e., there is a region or area in the brain receiving auditory impressions, another receiving visual impressions, an area for the reception of olfactory stimuli, one probably concerned with the receiving of tactual, thermal, kinaesthetic and organic stimuli. Thus when one writes, the motor cells make the hand move, and the sensory area sends back the kinaesthetic impressions to the brain. There is reason for the belief that the peripheral sensory neurones are in connection mainly with the opposite side of the cortex from which they originate; the optic nerve, however, is a curious modifica- tion of this plan. A great group of cortical cells known as the region of Rolando from its proximity to the Rolando fissure is recog- nized as having control over the voluntary muscles. The Rolandic region governs almost all the important move- ments of the body which are executed by muscles control- ling regions for which the skin furnishes the sense organs, i. e., the arms, hands, body, legs and face. "Besides this there are other large areas in the cortex which are not in immediate control of muscles, nor do they seem to represent the emergence point for neurones in connection with the sense organs" (1, p. 46). Flechsig, the most careful student of these, has named them asso- ciation centers. They serve to unite the several sensory regions, such as the auditory and visual areas, with one another and with the motor region. There is another extremely important connection known as the corpus callosum made up of cortical neurones and Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 43 joining the two hemispheres of the brain. Thus it is possible for a cortical nervous impulse, originating in the stimulation of some sense organ like the ear, to pass into other cortical regions, as that of vision, and thence out through the Rolandic zone to some muscle. This is what would occur if a person were told to write John. The person would hear the word, think how the word looked, and finally make the movement with the hand to write John (1, p. 47). See diagram below, which is reproduced from James' Psychology, by permission of Henry Holt & Company, New York. A Auditory center. V Visual center. W Writing center. E- Speech center. 44 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. APHASIA. -We already know that each particular form of sensation is located in a special system. It has been found that if these special systems are destroyed, all traces of the corresponding sensations would disappear, and all renewal of the same would be stopped. Also that if the connection between the normal stimulus and the periphery of such a system is destroyed, then physical images essen- tial for the renewal of the sensation are impossible, but the psychical images stored up in the mind persist. On the other hand, the destroying of the determinate regions of the cortex, which are the culminating points of these spe- cial systems, will permit of a renewal of the stimulus at the periphery of such a system, but renders impossible the for- mation of psychical images essential for the renewal of the sensation. (33, p. 661.) Images are of two kinds concrete, or images of objects, and symbolical or abstract, or verbal images, as those of language, whether spoken or written. Pathology demon- strates that some of these images may disappear, while others remain. The disappearance may concern the sensa- tions or images of a given sense, and yet allow of the sub- sistence of other senses; formation choice may also be made between the more or less complicated orders of the different images or representations of this sense. For ex- ample, the verbal images of hearing or of vision may be suppressed, and yet the images of objects may persist. All the psychical images may be suppressed and only sen- sations remain, or the psychical manifestations of a sense may be so utterly destroyed that nothing remains. A person suffering from aphasia has not lost the whole function of language, but only one of the factors taking part in the complex process. The lesion leading to aphasia presents distinct anatomical and functional forms, for example, in the cortex itself, the partial systems which give Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 45 rise to verbal images (cortical aphasias) may be destroyed, or the communication of these systems with each other or with the inferior systems receiving the sensations or for the performance of movements may be interrupted. (33, p. 662). "Even in the brain we distinguish between sys- tems for the reception and organization of sensations and those for the performance of motor verbal function; whence, according to the seat of the lesion in one or the other system, we find two functionally different forms of aphasia, one sensorial and the other motor." (33, p. 663.) Aphasia led psychologists to investigate the causes, and in so doing the special centers were discovered. Motor aphasia was investigated first. Broca, in 1861, proved that the destruction of the third frontal convolution of the left hemisphere lead to the loss of articulate speech; the motor memory of the articulation of words would be gone. In 1874 Wernicke discovered a word hearing center in the rear part of the auditory area. A new form of aphasia was discovered by him and called sensorial aphasia. A person so affected can articulate sounds or write, but his words have no meaning for him. "Sometimes he has lost his verbal auditory images (word deafness) ; sometimes he has lost his verbal visual images (word blindness), and the disturbance of the function of language is rendered manifest by his inability to read. The written signs have, for him, lost their symbolical significance; he can write, but cannot read what he has written; he can speak and answer an oral question, but not a written one." (33, p. 664. Thus it will be seen that alexia, or inability to read, does not involve agraphia or inability to write. Dr. Bald- win says: "In these cases we have the extreme motor type of verbal memory; also emphasized by Strieker: persons who remember written words by the memory of the sensa- tions involved in writing them." (3, p. 98.) 46 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. WRITING CENTER. Specialized reading and writing centers have been located. The reading center is made up of specialized cells forming part of the language center, and in right-handed people this center is more fully de- veloped in the left half of the brain. The idea of a separate graphic-motor or writing center was first put forth, in 1881, by Exner of Vienna, and has been advocated strongly by such educators as Mills of Philadelphia, etc., and, in fact, is generally acknowledged by neurologists, although Collins and others disclaim it strongly. It is located in the motor area just in front of the fissure of Rolando, and above and back of the speech area; or, in other words, at the base of the left second frontal convolution. In this area Exner believed the motor memories of writing were stored, the destruction of which area caused agraphia. Collins (10, p. 62) claims that internal speech is de- pendent upon a revival of auditory, visual and articulatory memories; all three centers contributing, but the one which is most highly cultivated is revived most vividly. The faculty of writing is developed, like that of articulate speech, under the stress of the impulse of imitation, and the co-ordination, Collins claims, is between the visual cen- ter and that part of the motor cortex from which impulses start to move the member that holds the pen, whether it be the hand or any other mobile part of the body. These movements of writing are all accompanied by the reception of kinsesthetic impulses that go to the somaesthetic area of the brain, and the renewal of these memories makes writing seem in those who have had long practice almost like an automatic act. In his estimation the motor act of wielding a brush in painting or in portraying visual sen- sory images, whether imaginary or real, is done by a corti- cal area quite as specialized as that for writing. If an idea is to be expressed in articulate speech, impulses are Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 47 sent to that area of the Rolandic region of the brain in which there is a separate allocation for the movements of respiration, vocalization, lingual and labial action. This area is adjacent to the area in which are stored sensory memories of articulatory movements. When the idea is externalized in writing, the genesis of the symbol is exactly analogous to that of articulate speech. The spoken word and the written word are both the result of internal lan- guage, as nearly everyone cannot help but be cognizant of the words ringing within while writing. They both require absolute integrity of the zone of language, the only differ- ence being that in the first instance the finished product is sent to the cortical area, center of the articulo-vocal mus- culature, and in the other to the Rolandic allocation of a much less complex motor mechanism, namely, to the corti- cal center of the member that holds the pen, whatever mobile part of the body that may be. Collins states that practice does not contribute to the development of a special center and that the scrivener does not possess a special center in which are located the graphic motor memories any more than does the telegrapher a telegraphic center, or the typewriter a typewriting center, or the pianist a special center in which are represented the complex move- ments of the fingers. Collins attempts to prove that Exner's interpretations of the cases of aphasia examined were wrong, but it must be remembered that Collins undoubtedly is a special pleader for his own belief. Notwithstanding, he brings forth some good evidence and gives about all the proof available against a writing center. For instance, if there is a specialized writing center in the brain in which are stored graphic images of words, then the destruction of this center must entail complete agraphia for both hands and any other part of the body capable of holding a pen. 48 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. If this is not so, then ambidextrous persons must have a separate graphic motor center on each side of the brain. This does not seem to be in accordance with what we know definitely of the cortical localization of speech functions (10, p. 143). Collins also claims that no ideal case to prove that there is a graphic motor center has ever been found. According to the theory of Charcot, the articulatory motor centers and the graphic motor centers are loci in which are stored the motor memories of articulation and the motor memories that guide the hand in writing. He fixed the one for graphic motor images in the foot of the second frontal convolution, and that for articulatory motor images in the foot of the third frontal. Charcot claimed that a lesion that destroys the third frontal does not entail agraphia. The coexistence of motor agraphia with motor aphasia, he claimed, was not necessary, and since then his pupils, Marie, Pitres, Grasset, Brissand and others claim the same and contend that there are cases of pure motor agraphia without aphasia. Marie (29, p. 241) does not believe that the third left frontal convolution of the brain plays any part in the func- tion of language. Prof. Pierre Marie, a la Faculte de Medicine de Paris, has studied the subject of aphasia, first hand, for over ten years, and if a reader wishes to know more of his investigations, as well as what has been done in the working out of the subject of aphasia by others, an article by Fernand Bernheim (Ancien interne des hopitaux de Paris), entitled "Evolution of the Problem of the Aphasias," published in "L' Annee Psychologique," Vol. 13, 1907, XXI, p. 344, should be read. As far as education is concerned, it matters little whether or not a writing center can be accurately located, for if there is no such center, then associations are made with the motor area, but we will assume that such a center has been Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 49 established as it is most generally accepted by neurologists. The influence resulting from heredity affects the reading and writing centers but little, as they are of such com- paratively recent origin as contrasted with the auditory and visual areas; hence the education of these areas may be controlled to a large extent by practice. COMPLEXITY OF THE WRITING MOVEMENT. The act of writing is a very complex muscular movement in- volving the use of some five hundred or more muscles alto- gether, some authorities state. Passing by, for the present, the origin of writing, and the close analysis and memory for form involved in the learning process, we will here con- sider the complexity of the muscular act. There is the movement across the page, bringing into play the large muscles of the arm and movement in the shoulder-joint and elbow. These lateral movements across the paper are different in character and in the muscles employed from the rotary movements used in forming the letters, i. e., the finer finger movements, bringing into play the smaller muscles, usually form the pen-strokes (26, p. 187). These different factors involved in the writing movement must work in perfect harmony in order to be able to do the most effective work; that is, the arm muscles must contract at just the right moment to carry the hand along and yet not interfere with the finer movements. This difficult co-ordination of muscles can only be brought about by long and correct practice as will be acknowledged if one only observes the halting, shifting movements of one just learning to write. DIFFUSION. Developed writing movements depend on the existence of a group of brain cells which are intercon- nected and interrelated in a very complex manner. This growth of interconnections between the cells is the result of a process requiring time and practice. When a young 50 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. child begins to learn to write, each brain cell acts in a large measure apart from every other brain cell, and there is no organized co-operation or muscular co-ordination. The child's unorganized movements are called diffuse movements, that is, they are untrained movements which are too much spread out. The real seat of diffusion is not in the muscles, but in the nervous system, where the im- pulse has been spread out or diffused rather than carried along definite fixed channels. This diffusion of impulses in the child's brain is due to the fact that the brain mass itself is unorganized, the regular lines of connection neces- sary for co-ordination have not been laid out, hence the impulse is at liberty to wander around, as it were, and shoot out in a very irregular and unco-ordinated fashion. This leads to the conclusion that the child's brain needs organization, and it is the study of the experiments performed to determine the development of voluntary movement that we will now consider. (2) PSYCHO-PHYSICAL ANALYSIS. Expriments in Voluntary Movement Bearing on the Pedagogy of Writing. It is now our purpose to review briefly a few studies made upon children and adults by psycho-physical methods to determine the rapidity, accuracy, strength and maturity, and fluctuating periods in the development of voluntary movements, especially those of the hand; together with a treatment of the experiments bearing on the specialized form of voluntary movement, namely writing, taking up such studies as bear on practice and habit, movements in writing, cross education, the relation of accuracy in hand- writing to school intelligence and sex. RAPIDITY OF MOVEMENT. Dr. W. L. Bryan (6, Development of Voluntary Motor Ability), in Worcester, and Dr. Gilbert (19, v. 1), at Yale Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 51 and Iowa (19, v. 1), have experimented upon the degree of rapidity with which children of different ages were able to tap an electric key which automatically recorded results. Dr. Bryan tested 789 children, ranging in age from five to sixteen. By means of the electric key, he tested four sets of arm muscles, shoulder, elbow, wrist, and metacarpo- phalangeal finger-joints. In order to secure the separation of these sets of muscles, the arm of the subject was clamped to allow movement only of the specific set of muscles. The test was to discover the greatest possible number of taps the subject could execute in five seconds. The following tables for boys and girls give the arith- metical means of the test (right arm) of all the boys and girls of a given age. TABLE A. BOYS. Age 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 No... 14 26 35 33 43 37 36 33 34 41 32 26 Finder 19.6 19.5 21.0 23.1 24.4 25.2 27.0 29.3 28.7 31.5 31.6 33.9 Wrist 20.1 23.0 23.7 26.3 27.8 28.5 30.3 31.6 32.3 33.0 34.2 35.9 Elbow 22.7 23.5 24.2 26.1 28.2 28.1 29.3 29.9 31.0 32.7 31.5 32.7 Shoulder 18.4 19.8 20.5 22.3 24.1 22.6 24.1 25.0 25.5 27.2 26.3 28.7 TABLE B. GIRLS. Age 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 No 28 32 33 43 37 36 33 34 41 32 26 Finger 19.8 20.7 22.2 24.0 25.8 27.1 28.2 30.3 29.5 29.1 31.3 Wrist 21.6 23.1 24.3 25.5 28.5 30.4 31.6 33.2 30.5 30.9 33.3 Elbow 22.7 23.2 24.4 25.4 27.5 28.6 29.4 30.5 28.8 29.3 30.1 Shoulder 19.9 20.2 21.9 22.7 22.6 24.9 25.7 27.5 26.6 26.0 27.9 Dr. Gilbert has made two studies upon rapidity of tap- ping, one upon New Haven children and the other upon Iowa children. The elbow, in his tests, was held free from the table and the arm was in no way clamped. The subject tapped with the finger, but the movement must be inter- preted largely as that of a wrist movement. The tests were made on approximately fifty children of each sex, and each age from six to seventeen years. The number of taps in five seconds for both sexes is shown in the fol- lowing table: 52 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. TABLE B. Age... 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 N. H. B. 21.0 22.8 24.9 25.8 27.7 29.7 30.3 29.8 31.2 31.3 33.0 35.0 I. B 22.1 23.3 25.8 27.1 28.3 2S.1 30.1 31.1 32.4 34.0 34.0 34.4 36.0 36.7 N. H. G. 19.7 21.2 23.9 25.0 26.9 27.8 29.6 28.1 28.0 29.8 31.8 31.5 I. G 22.3 24.2 26.0 26.7 26.2 28.0 29.3 29.5 29.4 31.3 32.2 33.8 34.3 35.3 Conclusions: The rapidity of motor ability of the hand and arm, for tapping exercises, increases, on the whole, with age and does not reach maturity until the adolescent period. This fact is demonstrated by both of the studies from which the tables given were taken. From the sixth year the rate increases through the pubescent period, with some few fluctuations. To show how immature this move- ment is at the age of entering school, the following table of percentages is given, assuming the rate of tapping at sixteen years as 100 per cent. TABLE c. Per cent, of 16-year Per cent, of 16-year ability possessed ability acquired between at 6 years of age. 6 and 16 years. (Bryan.) Boys. Girls. Boys. Girls. Finger 57 63 43 37 Wrist 64 65 36 35 Elbow 72 75 28 25 Shoulder 69 71 31 29 (Gilbert.) Hand (N. H.) 64 62 36 38 Hand (Iowa) 65 69 35 31 Because the subjects in Dr. Gilbert's tests held the arm entirely free, while the arm was clamped in those of Dr. Bryan's, it seems hardly fair to directly compare the two tests, as the movements in the first-mentioned test con- sisted probably of all four of the movements studied by Dr. Bryan. The tables representing the results of the tests show that girls mature earlier than boys in rapidity of arm and hand movements. With the exception of one test, the girls in Table C have at the age of six reached a larger percentage of their 16-year ability than the boys. It also shows that girls at the age of thirteen have practically Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 53 reached maturity, and that after that age the rate in some cases actually decreases. Boys seem to increase their abil- ity very materially until after the age of fifteen. Bryan's test gives the following results for girls of thirteen years of age: 97 per cent, in the finger test, 99 per cent, in the wrist test, 101 per cent, in the elbow test, and 98.2 per cent, in the shoulder test. Another result of the tests was that the rapidity of move- ment in tapping in the hand and arm tends to be the great- est when the rate of growth in height and weight is least. The process of anabolism in adding new tissues seems to interfere with the dexterity of movement. In the data of Bryan, as shown in the table given below, the tenth and fifteenth years are the highest in growth rate, but lowest in tapping ability. As shown by the table, the years of retarded tapping ability in the New Haven study are the ninth, fifteenth and seventeenth, while the years of accel- erated growth rate are the ninth, eleventh, thirteenth and fifteenth. The rate of improvement fluctuates or proceeds by marked rhythmical vibrations, sometimes very rapid, again slow, and in some years a decrease is shown from the rate of the previous year. The tables of both Bryan and Gil- bert show four periods of acceleration and four of retarda- tion in rate between the years 6 and 18, though for some years there is a slight divergence from this general state- ment. The years of highest rates for boys are as follows: Worcester . . .8th and 9th 1 1th 14th 16th New Haven. .8th lOthandllth 14th 16th Iowa 8th 12th 14th and 15th 18th The years of lowest rate are as follows: Worcester 10th 13th 15th New Haven 9th 13th 15th Iowa., ..llth 13th 16th 54 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. Another conclusion of importance is that the more cen- tral or fundamental movements tend to earlier maturity than the less central or less fundamental movements. In table D is shown the relative immaturity of the finger movement. Dr. Bryan's tests offer evidence upon this point, yet no one of the movements in a strict sense, except that of the finger, can be considered exclusivly accessory or fundamental. As will be noticed the finger has acquired in both boys and girls of six a smaller percentage of its ability at 6 years of age than any of the other parts; the wrist also shows less development than the elbow and shoulder. In the following table the rhythms in the growth in power are shown. Each retardation with its succeeding acceleration is thought of as a period, i. e., in the case of the boys there are four periods: 6 to 9, 9 to 12, 12 to 14, 14 to 16; in the case of the girls, three periods: 6 to 10, 10 to 13, 13 to 16. In this the tapping ability at 16 years is taken as 100 per cent., and the figures in the columns indicate the percentage of this 16-year ability added in each of these respective rhythms. TABLE D. GIRLS' RIGHT ARM. Age : Up to 6 years. 6-10. 10-13. 13-16. Total at 16. Fingers 63 20 14 3 100 Wrist 65 21 14 100 Elbow 75 15 10 100 Shoulder 71 10 18 1 100 BOYS' RIGHT ARM. Age : Up to 6 years. 69. 9-12. 12-14. 14-16. Total at 16. Fingei-s 66 14 14 7 7 100 Wrist 64 13 11 4 8 100 Elbow 72 14 5 9 100 Sboulder 69 15 7 4 5 100 These tables show (1) that the elbow and shoulder move- ments in both boys and girls have reached a larger per cent, of their mature power than the finger and wrist movements, the finger being without doubt more of an Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 55 accessory movement and of later evolutionary develop- ment; (2) that after 9 or 10 years of age the finger move- ment acquires a large per cent, of its ability, 28 per cent, in the boys and 17.5 per cent, in the girls. In another series of tests Dr. Bryan reached the same conclusion, namely, that the shoulder grows more slowly, the elbow slightly faster, and the wrist and fingers very much more rapidly. The rate of tapping for the wrist and fingers does not gain much upon the shoulder until the eleventh year, and then the finger rate, relatively, springs forward with much acceleration. The probable explanation is that the shoulder, as a central movement, has passed the period of extreme nascency very early, the elbow follows, the gain of the wrist is still later, and the period of nascency for the fingers is surely not until after the tenth year, and its real culmination in power is probably not reached until the sixteenth year. Bryan found that the mean rate of boys slightly exceeds that of girls at all ages except where retardation of growth in boys coincides with acceleration of growth in girls. It might also be mentioned in passing that there is less bilateral asymmetry of development in the rate ability of boys than in that of girls, and that boys develop more rapidly on the right side. The left-handed persons exam- ined showed decidedly less mean difference between the right and left sides, and less bilateral asymmetry than did right-handed persons. In Gilbert's tests the age of fatigue was found to be about eight. Girls tired more easily at 13 than 12, and boys more quickly throughout; but the boys tapped faster, the average number of times in five seconds being 29.4, while the average for girls was only 26.9. Gilbert also found out that all children of all grades react in about the same length of time just before those 56 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. ages in which changes of growth manifest themselves, viz., 11 and 16. The average reaction time for all ages for bright children was 20.7 hundredths of a second; for those of average ability it was 21.3; for dull children 22.4. Thus it will be seen that bright children react much more quickly than dull children, and we judge of a child's mental ability by the quickness with which it is able to act. Lombard (28, v. II) experimented on men in lifting weights, mostly by means of the flexor muscles of the second finger, and an attached pen recorded the results. The hand and arm were securely fixed on a convenient rest. After 110 seconds of continuous work the subject could hardly lift the weight, but shortly began to recover, and during the next half of a minute each of the succeed- ing contractions was higher than the one which had pre- ceded it. Fatigue then again began to manifest itself and the contractions became smaller. During 12 minutes the ability to voluntarily contract the muscles with sufficient strength to raise the weight decreased and recovered five times, due probably to functional changes in the central nervous system. These periods were often almost rhythm- ical, but displayed many variations. On the relation of fatigue to the rate of rapidity of voluntary movement Bryan has this statement: "The maximum rate of rhythm- ically repeated voluntary movement in a given individual is sufficient in amount and in constancy to indicate local and general subjective conditions, as excitement, general and local fatigue, local cold, and the improvement with age. The change of rate with extreme fatigue is large in comparison with the mean rate of improvement with age" (6, p. 174). ACCURACY OF VOLUNTARY MOVEMENT. We have as yet no great amount of detailed study into the normal relations of voluntary movement to conscious- Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 57 ness. The topic has nearly always been treated from the standpoint of perception of movement. It must be kept in mind that movement enters consciousness not only as perceived, but as intended. Conscious life is built up on the basis of the reflex arc; hence the efferent portion as well as the afferent should be studied. Movement begins as early in life and as far down in life as any sensation; the development of voluntary acts is from the lower to the higher. Woodworth's experiments (44, v. 3), carried on in the laboratory of Columbia University during the years 1898- 99 take up the relation of incoming and outgoing currents in normal individuals, and also the relative accuracy of the movement under the control of different senses. It is very important to investigate the accuracy of movement since it is accuracy that makes all movement useful and purposeful. "Movement must have a particular direction, a definite extent or goal, a definite force, a definite dura- tion, a definite relation to other movements, contempo- raneous, preceding and following" (44, p. 4). Tests. A kymograph carrying a continuous roll of paper 24 centimeters wide, at a rate of 1-5 mm. per second, was rotated on a horizontal axis. On the drum lines were ruled, each to be the exact length of the one preceding. The experiment was varied in several ways. Sometimes the normal was a seen line to be copied, time after time, by the subject; while at other times the line was repro- duced from memory. Sometimes a line was previously drawn on the moving paper, at right angles to the direc- tion of the movement, and the movements were required to terminate just on that line. The subject was impressed with the idea that he must make the present line equal to that immediately preceding, the width of the slit on the drum being so adjusted that the subject saw the line he had just made. 58 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. Conclusion. The relation of the accuracy of a move- ment to its speed is shown in Fig. 2 below (44, p. 29). ERROR mm. 4- 20 40 60 60 100 120 140 160 160 200 FIG. 2. In a general way the movement loses accuracy as the speed is increased, but it is not true that equal increments of speed produce equal increments of error, for the line of ascent in the diagram is steeper in the middle portion than at either end. It will be noticed that no perceptible in- crease in error accompanies the increase of speed at either end. For instance, movements at 40 per minute, intervals of 1.5 seconds, are on the whole quite as accurate as move- ments at 20, and movements at 140, 160, 180 and 200 are all about equally accurate. By way of a general explana- tion it may be said that an interval of 1.5 seconds allows time for all the finer adjustments at the end of a move- ment that can be done in an interval of 3 seconds. There- fore there is a lower limit beyond which decrease in speed does not conduce to greater accuracy. In the same way, at the upper end there is a limit beyond which increase in speed does not produce much further inaccuracy., The explanation of this seems to be that beyond a speed of 140 to 160 movements per minute it is no longer possible to control the movements separately, hence much has to be left to the automatic uniformity of the hand's move- ments, and this does not seem to diminish as the speed increases. Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 59 The results of the muscle sense test is shown in Fig. 3. ERROR Ynm. 6- 4- 20 40 60 8O ICO 120 140 160 1 60 200 no. 3. This shows the relation when the eyes are closed, and also when the movement is careless or automatic. The automatic movement gains slightly in uniformity as the speed increases, while the studied movements made with eyes closed are almost equally accurate (or inaccurate) throughout. The correlation between accuracy and speed is much slighter than when the eyes are used. Concerning the results obtained from the three mov- ments it may be said that the one governed by the eye was much more accurate at low speed, the one made with the eyes shut, though less accurate than the first, is still decidedly better than the careless movement. This was found to be true at low speed, and is less and less the case as the speed is increased. We might say in other words that at a high rate of speed the accuracy contributed by voluntary attention, using either the muscle (joint) sense or the eyes, amounts to zero, and that when the speed is decreased, the accuracy due to visual control is greatly increased, but not that due to the muscle sense. INITIAL ADJUSTMENT AND CURRENT CONTROL. The initial adjustment for any movement is complex; it includes the innervataion of different muscles one after 60 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. another. It is undoubtedly true that the co-ordination adapted to produce a straight line is probably more com- plex than that to produce certain curves. The first impulse includes also a command to stop after a certain distance; these later effects of the initial impulse are probably reflex in some degree at least. The proper continuation of a movement which has been started seems to be dependent on the preservation of the sensibilities of the arm making the movement, and yet the first impulse contains in some way the entire movement. A graphic demonstration of the later adjustment is not easy, but Woodworth (44, p. 55), by means of a rapidly rotating kymograph obtained a curve of the speed of the movement similar to the curve of muscular contraction and any little additions to the movement could be detected. Conclusions. The accuracy of the original impulse is slight compared with that added by the later adjustment, when the speed is low and the eyes are used; otherwise almost as great. In other words, in the situations which permit great accuracy, that accuracy is due mostly, not to the initial adjustment of the movement as a whole, but to the current control, consisting of finer adjustments. Woodworth thinks that in addition to the inaccuracy of perception and inaccuracy due to the failure of the move- ment to obey our intention, there is also an inaccuracy in the intention itself, or in the process of adjusting the movement to the perception (44, p. 71). SENSORY BASIS FOR CONTROL OF MOVEMENT. Woodworth (44, p. 71), endeavored to find what sensations are relied on for the government of the extent of a move- ment. Among other tests he tried one in which the sub- ject wrote with eyes closed, and from this the following conclusions were drawn: (1) at the ordinary rate of speed the writing of a single letter or a short word can be done Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 61 as well with the eyes closed as with them open; (2) extreme slowness is a disadvantage when the eyes are not used; (3) if several words are written with the eyes closed, the align- ment is lost or some other constant error makes itself evi- dent. The conclusion he reached from observing people write with the eyes open is that when the speed is low enough to permit of fine secondary adjustments, the eyes assist greatly in forming the letters just right. If we introspect our act of writing we shall find that we never look at the movements of our fingers, but seemingly at the letters just written, and yet if we watch some one else write, we will find that the eyes move but little and do not follow the form of each letter, but seem to keep track in general of where he is, to preserve the alignment and spacing, to keep an equality in the letters, and to avoid losing his way when in the midst of a word and so mis- spell it. Hence we conclude, says Woodworth, that in forming the letters we come to depend mostly on the muscular and tactile sensibility. Downey, in experimenting in the Psychological Labora- tory of Chicago University to determine the control pro- cesses in modified handwriting attempted to throw into relief these control processes by eliminating or distracting some particular control, as, for example, having the subject write blindfolded to eliminate as much of the visual control as possible. Among other results she found (1) no evi- dence of a voluntary act of writing without a sensory cue of some sort, (2) throughout the whole series of experi- ments the report coming from the writing in terms either of kinaesthetic or visual sensations and images proved to have a highly important function as a part of the writing cue (13, p. 142). In considering the results of these two experiments car- ried on by Woodworth and Downey one must remember 62 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. that the subjects were adults, and the conclusions are based on the results obtained from people with well established habits of writing. In the case of adults in whom the writing habit is fully developed, the utility of the visual image may be considered as trifling, but when the function of the visual factor in writing is considered genetically, or where new co-ordinations are attempted by the young child, its value and use is obvious enough. It is said that adult introspection rarely reveals an anticipatory visual verbal image, and there is a tendency among psychological investigators to minimize the value of the visual percep- tion of the result of the writing movement to the fact brought out by Woodworth, namely, that it is directive in the matter of spacing and alignment, etc. Yet as Baw- den states: "It is practically impossible to determine with experimental accuracy the degree to which the kinaesthetic is helped out by the visual imagery in writing" (2, p. 390). It is true that the hand-kinaesthetic process is a necessary accompaniment of writing as an act, but not necessarily of the writing-consciousness; for there is a difference between the writing movement which might be a purely physiological event and the consciousness of that move- ment. This difference may be either in the form of an image of anticipation or of a sensational report of the movement as achieved, either of which might fail to assume kineesthetic terms. A sensory kinaesthetic report on the movement as it proceeds is usually present, although it varies in different individuals and has a different value for the same individual under different conditions. As a mat- ter of fact, as a conscious control process this kinaesthetic report has great utility, probably functioning in the usual course of writing as a corrective but also at times as an initiative process as well. Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 63 Woodworth thinks that the muscle sense is disregarded in judging the extent of a movement when the eyes are used (44, p. 76). The eye tells us nothing about the co- ordination of the muscles, and for the control of the move- ment in that respect we no doubt have to depend on the sensations from the moving member, as is recognized when we try to write with a numb hand. In this case the eye cannot supply the lack of skin sensations, because we have never looked at the movements of our fingers, but always at the results; consequently no association between the visual sensation of the moving fingers and the proper impulse to set the muscles into co-ordination has been made. In short it may be said that the general and. co- ordinating control is vested in the muscle sensation, and the closer control necessary in making one line equal to another is left entirely to the eye when that is used. INACCURACIES DUE TO PERCEPTION AND MOVE- MENT. Fullerton and Cattell (17) found in their experi- ments to test Weber's law, in which the subjects drew lines just perceptibly longer and shorter than a given line, that (1) part of the total error in producing a movement may be attributed to inaccuracy of perception, and (2) the remainder to the failure of the movement to obey our in- tention. To prove this the experimenters required the subject in each case after making a movement to judge, or at least guess, whether the line was too long or too short. As a result the right guesses were too large to be attributed to mere chance, but went to prove that the error of perception is considerably larger than the error of movement. Miinsterberg found in his studies of movement that the accuracy of the reproduction of arm movements was af- fected by emotional conditions. Bodily vivacity produced a positive constant error; langour a negative constant 64 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. error; seriousness a negative constant error, and gaiety a positive (35, pp. 81-88). Munsterberg thinks that it is quite likely that many of the unaccountable variations in accuracy are the result of fleeting emotions. PRACTICE AND HABIT. The importance of a treatment of practice and habit in considering the teaching of writing will be readily recog- nized by all since writing in its last analysis should be considered as nearly an automatic process as it is possible to make it such. The means through which this automa- tization is brought about is practice. W. Smythe Johnson (25, p. 64) has carried on some valu- able researches in practice and habit, one of his experi- ments being the drawing of circles from copies. With the exception of one girl of twelve, the subjects were adults. The subjects were impressed with the fact that they must keep the true circle constantly in memory after they took their eyes off the copies to direct their hands. The circles were drawn free hand, no portion of the hand or arm being allowed to rest on the table during the process. Conclusions (1) When practice is carried on until the movements become irregular, the practice becomes injurious, for the irregular movements seem to become incorporated into the chain of reaction as certainly as do those which are pur- posefully directed. Therefore practice may tend to estab- lish irregular adjustments as well as regular ones; the capital on hand at the beginning of each succeeding prac- tice period is the sum of the preceding practices. If wrong adjustments of the muscles are made, and these gain a place in the chain of subconscious memories, then these adjustments delay the development of the control over the muscles for accurate adjustment. In the experiment bet- Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 65 ter results might have been obtained in those cases where the error increased after the third circle, if the practice period had been shorter in the first part of the series and more prolonged later. (2) Special effort was accompanied by unnecessary movements of the body, but as the action became more habitual most of these distortions disappeared. It is prob- ably true that when there is a tension of some muscles while others are being vigorously exercised, they become influenced in proportion to this tension. (3) Since some subjects increased while others decreased the size of the successive circles drawn, the conclusion may be drawn that each individual has a certain adjustment of the muscles in writing and drawing which should be taken into consideration when training the muscles for accurate adjustment. In the experiment made by Johnson, continued from six to eleven days, in which each of seven persons tapped at the corners of an equilateral triangle, it was found that the greatest gain in rapidity of triangular movements of the hand, as well as in the regularity of successive movements, were made in the early part of the practice, before fatigue set in. Where the exercise was continued, after a short in- terval there was a renewal of the effort. This goes to show that short periods of practice often repeated make for more rapid development of the accurate adjustment of voluntary movements than few periods of longer duration. It takes, time for muscular adjustment to take place. In the words of Dr. James, "We learn to skate in summer." In the experiment performed by Swift (40, p. 170), in which two balls were kept in the air with one hand, it was found that progress was never uniform, but always by jumps. For several days the learner would show no gain, or perhaps even fall back, and then he would go rapidly 66 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. forward. During these plateau periods, in which the sub- ject did not seem to advance, he was, it is believed by psy- chologists, gaining in confidence; in other words, the co- ordination of muscles was being developed and made habitual for future use. In Bryan and Harter's studies in telegraphy (7, p. 345), the plateaus in the practice curve mark, they say, the time when the successful co-ordinations are made auto- matic. Automatization is going on during the entire learn- ing process, but more than at any other time during the plateau period. As a conclusion concerning the learning of typewriting, Prof. Book (4, p. 26) says: "To try to crowd ahead before the elementary habits are sufficiently mastered to make safe the taking of a forward step, or to fail to perfect the elemental associations which must be combined to form the higher and more direct method of writing, is fatal to progress or interest." From his experiments he con- cluded that at certain definite stages of advancement, where a special habit, or group of these special habits is being perfected, the learners are especially liable to settle down to a rate of work far below their highest possibilities, and this low rate of efficiency tends to become habitual. Bryan and Harter concluded also that only intense effort counts in practice. As a result of the memory test, Book concludes that special emphasis should be given to the importance of time intervals in learning, and that the whole problem of determining the most economic periods of work and rest for all kinds of learning should be opened up for careful consideration. In the Yale Psychological Labratory Miss Smith, under the direction of Dr. Scripture (38, Education of Muscular Control and Power), made some experiments in which the measure of accuracy was the ability to insert a needle into Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 67 a hole J285 inch in diameter. Twenty experiments were made, first with the left hand, with a result of 50 per cent, of successful trials, and immediately 20 experiments were made with the right hand; result, 60 per cent, of suc- cessful trials. On the following day and on each succes- sive day 200 experiments were taken with the right hand. The percentage of succssful trials ran as follows: 61, 64, 65, 75, 74, 75, 82, 79, 78, 88. On the tenth day 20 experi- ments were performed with the left hand, and the result was 76 per cent, of successful trials, 26 per cent, increase without practice. This increase of steadiness in the un- practiced hand was thought to have been due to a training of the attention, since by a special effort of attention, after a week's practice it was possible to insert the needle into the hole successfully for any given ten times. Also because any distraction of attention, as noise, invariably lowered the per cent, of steadiness, as was also true in case of bodily or mental fatigue. As to the effect of different directions of the attention it may be added that concentration upon the muscular movement to be performed was unfavorable, but fixation of attention upon the objective point to be reached by the needle was productive of the best results. Fatigue of the muscles of the eye was a more noticeable result than fatigue of the muscles directly practiced. Conclusions (1) Steadiness of movement can be increased by prac- tice. (2) This increase of steadiness does not seem to be lim- ited to the control of the muscles immediately trained, but affects the control of the corresponding muscles on the opposite side of the body. (3) This training seems to be of a psychical rather than of a physical order, and to lie principally in the steadiness of the attention. 68 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. Woodworth, in his studies of the accuracy of voluntary movements, before taken up, concluded with Johnson and others that only successful practice counted, and that un- successful practice was a positive detriment, inasmuch as wrong adjustments were made delaying the develop- ment of accurate adjustments, and that practice of the unsuccessful kind discouraged the subject and caused him to put forth less effort in future practice. ^CROSS-EDUCATION. The term "cross-education" is used to express the fact that the effect of practice on one side of the body is transferred in some degree to the unpracticed side. The results from Scripture's experiment in muscular control and power, treated in the preceding pages, bear out the fact that the effects of practice are transferred, as does also Bryan's tapping test gone over in a preceding portion of this writing. Davis (11, p. 6) has investigated quite extensively along the line of cross-education, and his results will be taken up very briefly. The experiments were carried on during 1898-99, and were for the purpose of establishing more definitely the fact of cross-education and if possible to find out the cause. Tapping and lunging at points, as well as lifting weights, were some of the tests. CONCLUSIONS. (1) The effects of exercise may be transferred to a greater or less degree from the parts practiced to other parts of the body; the transference being greatest to sym- metrical and closely related parts. (2) There is a close connection between different parts of the muscular system through nervous means; this con- nection being closer between parts related in function or in position. (3) Will power and attention are educated by physical Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 69 training; when developed for any special act they are developed for all other acts. As an explanation of the cause of cross-education, Davis says in substance that there is no doubt but that the most important effects of muscular practice are central rather than peripheral. There are two central effects to be dis- tinguished, (l)that dependent on the development of motor centers; that is, through exercise; (2) that de- pendent on the development of psychical factors, notably attention and will power. Of these two effects he con- siders the first as being more important, since in the tap- ping test close attention and a strong will power were hindrances, but in tests requiring strong effort these fac- tors are useful. MOVEMENTS USED IN WRITING. Investigations have shown that the nervous mechanism involved in the attempt to be precise with the fingers prob- ably requires an adjustment of a larger area of muscular and nervous tissues than those of any other movement of the body. It is said that precision in drawing a fine line requires steadiness not only of the finger move- ment itself, but of the hand, the whole arm and even of the whole body. Precision seems to involve two processes, (1) steadiness of the central organism as a platform upon which to rest, and (2) the finer nerve adjustments of the most complex nervous elements (8, p. 58). Hancock (22, Motor Ability) has investigated this phase of the problem in his experiment testing the ability of chil- dren to stand still. The test was to have a child with feet close together, hands at side, and attention on some dis- tant object, stand still for one minute. An ataxagraph, which automatically registered the swayings of the subject upon smoked paper, was attached to a cap worn on the head. In this way 168 boys and girls of Worcester, aged 5-7 years, were tested. 70 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. Results: The tests showed that during these two years the girls gained in steadiness 32 or 33 per cent, of the power of control at five years of age, while the boys gained about 15 or 16 per cent. H. S. Curtis, in his study of inhibition, tested the ability of children of various ages to sit perfectly still, and as a result he found that an ordinary child cannot on an average sit still more than 30 seconds when under five years of age, and children from five to ten years of age are unable to sit still for more than one and one-half minutes at any time. He explains this on the grounds that the higher centers of voluntary control are not developed in any degree until a late period of child life. It was found that mental occupation aided greatly in the control of muscular restlessness. PERIPHERAL UNSTEADINESS. Corresponding to the larger swaying of the central movements, there are numerous small vibrations in the peripheral muscles involved in the adjustment for fine movements. Though these movements are imperceptible to ordinary observation, experimentally they are always demonstrable. In early infancy they appear in the form of apparently nervous twitchings that constantly occur in nearly every muscle of the body, even during sleep. These are perfectly normal and are signs of health. They tend to disappear in conditions of lowered nutriment, and in idiotic infants fewer are found. As the infant grows these movements become less noticeable, gradually tending to disappear as the nervous and muscular mechanism is perfected; the lower mechanisms pass under control of higher brain levels. ACT OF WRITING. The writing movements are made up of different factors, and yet all these must fit each other perfectly. The finer Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 71 pen strokes made with the fingers must not interfere with the movements of the arm across the page. The muscles of the arm must not contract until the finger-work is done, and then the arm must carry the hand forward to a new point where the fingers execute new pen strokes. In form- ing letters the child seems to use finger movements almost exclusively, the hand and arm moving only in the intervals between the finger movements. The child forcibly moves the hand and arm because the fingers become so cramped that they must be relieved in a measure by a moving of the hand forward. At this stage of learning to write there is a lack of unity between the finger movements and those of the hand and arm. Dr. Judd found that there were certain parts of the hand which did not participate in the finger movement, i. e., the fifth metacarpal bone just behind the little finger. He found that by attaching a tracer to this bone he could dis- cover what movements belonged to the hand by means of the additional writing or tracing. The instrument did not record (1) slight movements upward or downward, and (2) movements of supination or pronation the rotating of the hand so that it tends to lie flat on its palm (26, p. 170). One of the records is shown in Fig. 15 (26, p. 172). On the left appear the letters written, and on the right the tracer-record. The most obvious result is that the hand participated only in the forward movement and the fingers' l^ 34> 5 6 7 S 9 \\\ [ [Me. / 10 11 72 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. work seemed to be to form the letters. The lines between 1 and 3 in the tracer-record represent the whole movement of the hand during the writing of the letter 1 and the first stroke of the letter e. In the tracer-record the total move- ment of the hand from the top of 1 to the top of the next 1 furnishes a striking illustration of the relation between hand movement and finger movement in forming the letter a. The movement 6-7 in the tracer-record shows the part played by the hand in making the downward stroke of the 1 and in carrying the fingers forward to the position from which they did the greater part of the work of forming a. Contrast 6-7 with 2-3, which represents a similar move- ment, and a characteristic fact in all hand movements will be observed, namely, that in almost every case the hand does its part in forming a letter before the fingers begin their finer formative work. Another result observed in this tracer-record appears in the difference in slope of the three parts, 1-10, 10-5, and 5-9. 1-10 indicates the movement of the hand during the writing of the first group of letters. From the slope the indication seems to be that the hand executed a consider- able movement from left to right on its own center in the wrist. The slope in the line 10-5, brought about by the movement executed during the pause between the writing of the two groups of letters, indicates that this movement was made from an entirely different center; an arm move- ment centered at the elbow instead of at the wrist, as was the case in the movement 1-10. A wrist movement from right to left is indicated by the convex form of the line just before 5. The interval between the groups of letters seems to have been employed in executing an arm move- ment which carried the hand forward and in executing a backward wrist movement which prepared the hand to go on with the new series of forward movements recorded from 5-9. Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 73 General Conclusions: (1) In ordinary writing the fine formative movements are executed by the fingers. (2) The movement which carries the fingers forward are executed by the hand or arm. (3) The pauses between groups of letters are utilized for longer forward arm movements which bring the hand back into an easy working position. (4) A comparison of the different types of co-ordination obtained from the experiment shows that each individual has his own peculiar combination of arm and hand and finger movements, and that forms of co-ordination are as numerous and various as are the individuals who write. (5) The hand usually requires a few strokes at first to adjust itself; the necessary adjustment sometimes being brought about by a greater emphasis on finger movement, and sometimes by a more pronounced hand movement. (6) Any change in the condition under which the sub- ject writes will modify the character of co-ordination, i. e., changing from a hard to a soft pencil, from a vertical position of the paper to an oblique, will produce variations in the character of the muscular co-ordination, even when the product of the movement (the written letter) does not seem to be changed. PRONATION. There is another movement which enters into the total complex of writing movements and is well worthy of notice before passing to another subject. This movement is known as pronation. It consists in rotating the hand so that it tends at all times to lie flat on its palm. This rotary movement is possible because the bones of the forearm, the ulna and radius, fasten at the wrist in such a manner that they can turn the hand, causing the palm 74 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. to lie either up or down. When the palm is downward, or prone, the position is due to the movement of pronation. In the course of writing a line across the page most adults make a slight movement of pronation. The gradual modi- fication in the position of the arm axis with reference to the edge of the paper, which takes place during the writing of a line, requires some definite form of compensating movement, if the slope of the letters is to be kept uniform with reference to the edges of the paper (26, p. 181). Specimens of ordinary handwriting show that only partial corrections of the slope of finger movements have usually been effected by ordinary writers, i. e., the slopes of letters at the end of a line, or at the end of a word, are usually greater than the slopes at the beginning. Failure to cor- rect the slope gives to the line and to the word a somewhat irregular appearance commonly noticeable in ordinary writing, and nearly always found to a considerable degree in the writings of children. The movement of pronation effects all the corrections in slope that are possible, since it tends to throw the upper end of the pen toward the writer and thus to give the pen a movement more nearly parallel to its first movements at the beginning of the line. This movement of pronation is one which most adults have, but in only a partially developed degree. Pronation as a corrective movement is a factor necessary to secure uniformity whatever the slope. SLOPE. Most of the movements used in writing were found by investigations carried on by McAllister (32, Movements Made in Writing) in the Yale Psychological Laboratory to be movements following the direction of the radii in quad- rants I and III in the figure below. It was found that if Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 75 x'- 90" Y n m Xo= nr quadrant I be taken as the standard, that quadrant II required for the average of all movements 30 per cent, more time; quadrant III 10 per cent, less time, and quad- rant IV 25 per cent, more time. Thus showing that the slowest movements are in quadrant II. This result indi- cates the direction in which we might expect the hand to move if one were asked to make some long strokes with a pen, or some vertical lines, rapidly. These would tend to slope towards the right rather than towards the left. In McAllister's experiment with kindergarten children in the New Haven public schools the pupils drew rings. He found that the slant in some papers varied from to 175, but in most cases there was much less variety of slant. Each subject made the movement with one con- tinuous swing of the pencil, and no time was allowed to correct the movement, the muscular sense alone governed the extent of the movement in either direction. Since the feeling of effort made by the eye in running along vertical lines is greater than that made by running over horizontal distances of the same length, the results showed an over- estimation of the vertical distances, and leads to the con- clusion that greater effort required to make movements in the direction of the radii of quadrants II and IV causes the distances passed over in those directions to be over- estimated by the muscle sense. In many cases the eye 76 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. later discovered the error due to the muscle sense, and a desire to correct in later drawings caused the variety of slants found in some papers. Conclusions: (1) Natural slant is the most rapid. (2) The hand acquires a slope that is usually farther removed from the perpendicular than the model used as a copy, a child usually deviating 10 from the vertical. (3) The greater the slant to the right from the yy' axis, the more rapid will be the writing. A slant of about 75 permits legible writing, but as the angle decreases below 70 the legibility decreases rapidly. (4) A base line is desirable to guide the eye in writing across a page or in lining the letters in a word. Other lines cause the child to give more attention to spacing and height than to form and movement. (5) Free, full forearm movements in a horizontal plane are made more rapidly towards the body than away from it, up strokes taking more time than down strokes. (6) It is desirable to have the child connect the letters in a word, even though in later life these connections are in many cases left out. The reason for this is that as the child slowly moves the hand in producing the up stroke, the eye has time to estimate distances, and the tops of letters are for that reason kept very nearly in line. With- out these guiding lines, the letters are raised from the t a base line, i. e., c . (7) In the very first stages speed should be of little importance to a child learning to write. The fundamental thing is to educate the muscles so that the proper co- ordinations may be made to form legible characters. Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 77 (8) It is a great strain on the hand and arm to attempt to keep a constant pressure on the paper for all strokes. Raising the pen or pencil from the paper removes this strain. After the child has acquired some facility in the art of writing, the upward movements may be made much more rapidly and easily if it is not necessary to have the path of these movements on paper. The up stroke at the beginning and end of a word are of no assistance to the reader, hence they may be dropped. Binet and Courtier also found that separated letters may be made more rapidly than connected ones. Adult writing shows the continual lifting of the pen. Shading of down strokes provides a means of relieving the strain by varying the pressure. (9) For rapid writing only lines essential to the forms of the letters should be on paper. (10) Each child should be allowed to choose his own size of letters. (11) Backhand writing is slow and difficult. BEST MOVEMENT. Woodworth (44, p. 106) made some experiments in which adult subjects made a series of movements back and forth, i. e., a line of small u's joined together, a line of small m's, etc. Results : (1) The whole arm movement, if hastened, is by all means the hardest physically since it requires the expendi- ture of the most energy and shakes the whole body. (2) In uniformity of slant, accuracy and speed, the forearm movement is easily the best of all the movements used in writing. TYPES. From an observation of handwriting one finds that most people have an individual style, yet many products of 78 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing, adult writing show plainly the effects of early instruction (copy) instead of individuality. Preyer distinguishes be- tween natural and artificial handwriting. Children seem to depend on copy to a greater extent than is the case with adults, but as a child advances in years and practice, his writing tends more and more to change over gradually into the natural. Meumann (31, p. 301) in his experiments and observa- tions found three types: (1) Masculine, (2) Feminine, (3) Children's. (1) The characteristics of the masculine type is that the pressure is heavier than that of the feminine, and the pressure is distributed so that in every word is shown a place of maximum pressure. To this maximum the re- maining innervation is subordinated in a rythmical way, rising or descending in a fixed curve to or from the maxi- mum. This maximum is found sometimes at the begin- ning and sometimes at the end of words, increasing with the velocity of writing. (2) Women write faster than men, and as the speed increases the pressure lessens. In the case of men there was more totality of impulse in writing a word or several words, while in the writing of women several maxima are found in a word. Women stop often while writing; men write with more completeness of total impulse, thus allow- ing more freedom for thought, yet tending to write with greater carelessness than women. (3) There is found no maximum pressure in the writ; ing of children six or seven years of age; but the separate letters, and in the beginning separate strokes, are written with equal pressure. No rhythmical curve is shown, but an irregular long drawn out one reaching the same height Experiments Bearing on the Psychology of Writing. 79 with every stroke. While increased speed causes fixed rhythmical pressure on parts of words and single letters, the child uses always a longer time, and every stroke is made with approximately equal speed; absolute pressure therefore is less important. The general conclusion is that adults write with a will impulse for entire words or parts of words, while children use as many will impulses as letters or strokes. RELATION OF ACCURACY IN WRITING TO SCHOOL INTELLIGENCE AND SEX. Gesell's experiments (18, p. 395) along this line are the latest and most reliable source of light on the subject. He examined the work of grades I-IX of the public schools of Worcester, Mass., 12,600 specimens in all being classi- fied and tabulated. Each of 105 teachers submitted four sets of representative specimens written by the pupils of her grade: Group I. Specimens from three best writers in grade. Group II. Specimens from three worst writers in grade. Group III. Specimens from the three pupils of highest mental ability as represented by school standings. Group IV. Specimens from three pupils of the lowest mental ability as represented by school standings. To each specimen was attached a slip giving desired data about the pupil, as indicated below: 1. School intelligence (as shown by standings): Very Good, Good, Poor, Very Poor. 2. General intelligence (irrespective of standing) : Bright, Average, Dull. 3. Motor ability (a careful judgment of the pupil's mus- cular dexterity, as shown in drawing, sewing, manual training, and general aptness in using figures, hands, and arms) : Clever, Average, Clumsy. 80 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. 4. Facility in writing: Ease, Moderate Ease, Effort. The following table shows in a graphic way the relation of sex, school intelligence, general intelligence, motor ability, and facility in writing by classifying the number in each group under these different heads: School General Motor Facility in Sex. Intelligence. Intelligence. Ability. Writing. 3 S ? ? I MO >Ofa^^ M Pedagogy of Writing. o 108 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. Pedagogy of Writing. 109 c- 110 Psychology and Pedagogy of Writing. Pedagogy of Writing. Ill