Both electronic note-taking (typing) and traditional note-taking (handwriting) are being utilized by college students to retain information. The effects of the method of note-taking and note-taking context were examined to determine if handwriting or typing notes and whether a lecture context or a textbook-reading context influenced retention. Pitzer College and Scripps College students were assigned to either handwrite or type notes on a piece of academic material presented in either a lecture or textbook context and were given a test to assess their retention. The results demonstrated that there was a significant main effect for typing notes such that typing notes produced higher retention scores than handwriting notes. The results also indicated that there was an interaction between method of note-taking and context such that the lowest scores were achieved in the condition in which participants handwrote notes during a lecture. In total, these findings suggest that typing as a method of note-taking may by an influential factor in memory retention, particularly in a lecture context.

The problem of recognizing handwritten mathematics notation has been studied for over forty years with little practical success. The poor performance of math recognition systems is due, at least in part, to a lack of realistic data for use in training recognition systems and evaluating their accuracy. In fields for which such data is available, such as face and voice recognition, the data, along with objectively-evaluated recognition contests, has contributed to the rapid advancement of the state of the art. This thesis proposes a method for constructing data corpora not only for hand- written math recognition, but for sketch recognition in general. The method consists of automatically generating template expressions, transcribing these expressions by hand, and automatically labelling them with ground-truth. This approach is motivated by practical considerations and is shown to be more extensible and objective than other potential methods. We introduce a grammar-based approach for the template generation task. In this approach, random derivations in a context-free grammar are controlled so as to generate math expressions for transcription. The generation process may be controlled in terms of expression size and distribution over mathematical semantics. Finally, we present a novel ground-truthing method based on matching terminal symbols in grammar derivations to recognized symbols. The matching is produced by a best-first search through symbol recognition results. Experiments show that this method is highly accurate but rejects many of its inputs.

The problem of recognizing handwritten mathematics notation has been studied for over forty years with little practical success. The poor performance of math recognition systems is due, at least in part, to a lack of realistic data for use in training recognition systems and evaluating their accuracy. In fields for which such data is available, such as face and voice recognition, the data, along with objectively-evaluated recognition contests, has contributed to the rapid advancement of the state of the art. This thesis proposes a method for constructing data corpora not only for hand- written math recognition, but for sketch recognition in general. The method consists of automatically generating template expressions, transcribing these expressions by hand, and automatically labelling them with ground-truth. This approach is motivated by practical considerations and is shown to be more extensible and objective than other potential methods. We introduce a grammar-based approach for the template generation task. In this approach, random derivations in a context-free grammar are controlled so as to generate math expressions for transcription. The generation process may be controlled in terms of expression size and distribution over mathematical semantics. Finally, we present a novel ground-truthing method based on matching terminal symbols in grammar derivations to recognized symbols. The matching is produced by a best-first search through symbol recognition results. Experiments show that this method is highly accurate but rejects many of its inputs.

This study examined the relationship of holistic scoring with handwriting legibility, spelling accuracy and number of T-units within compositions written by children in grades 3 through 6 using path analysis. A sample of 223 compositions was rated for handwriting legibility and composition quality, and coded for number of T-units and percentage of accurately spelled words. Number of T-units was consistently the strongest predictor of holistic scoring across the four grade levels. Handwriting legibility and spelling accuracy yielded varying results in different grade levels.

Converting handwritten or machine printed documents into a computer readable format allows more efficient storage and processing. The recognition of machine printed text is very reliable with today's technology, but the recognition of offline handwriting still remains a problem to the research community due to the high variance in handwriting styles. Modern mobile devices are capable of performing complex tasks such as scanning invoices, reading traffic signs, and online handwriting recognition, but there are only a few applications that treat offline handwriting. This thesis investigates the segmentation of handwritten documents into text lines and words, how the legibility of handwriting can be increased by beautification, as well as implementing it for modern mobile devices. Text line and word segmentation are crucial steps towards implementing a complete handwriting recognition system. The results of this thesis show that text line and word segmentation along with handwriting beautification can be implemented successfully for modern mobile devices and a survey concluding that the writing on processed documents is more legible than their unprocessed counterparts. An application for the operating system iOS is developed for demonstration.

Hand dominance is the preferential use of one hand over the other for motor tasks. 90% of people are right-hand dominant, and the majority of injuries (acute and cumulative trauma) occur to the dominant limb, creating a double-impact injury whereby a person is left in a functional state of single-handedness and must rely on the less-dexterous, non-dominant hand. When loss of dominant hand function is permanent, a forced shift of dominance is termed injury-induced hand dominance transfer (I-IHDT). Military service members injured in combat operation may face I-IHDT following mutilating injuries (crush, avulsion, burn and blast wounds) that result in dominant limb amputation or limb salvage. Military occupational therapy practitioners utilize an intervention called Handwriting For Heroes to facilitate hand dominance transfer. This intervention trains the injured military member how to write again using the previously non-dominant hand. Efficacy and clinical effectiveness studies were needed to validate the use of this intervention. This dissertation contains three studies related to I-IHDT. One study measured handwriting performance in adults who previously (greater than 2 years ago) lost function of their dominant hands. Results verified that handwriting performance, when measured on two separate occasions (six-weeks apart) was similar (stable). A second study examined the efficacy of Handwriting For Heroes in non-impaired participants. Results demonstrated a positive effect on the variables that measured the written product: legibility, writing speed (letters-per-minute); as well as a positive effect on the variables that measured the writing process: kinematic and kinetic parameters. The final study examined the clinical effectiveness of Handwriting For Heroes in an injured military population. Results did not show as positive results as the efficacy study, despite similar compliance with the intervention. Specifically, non-impaired participants started with faster writing speeds in their non-dominant hands (higher letters-per-minute) and made more gains (wider ranges). The non-impaired participants also started with faster dexterity (betters scores on the Grooved Pegboard) but they made fewer gains than the injured service members (smaller ranges). Nevertheless, injured participants clearly made gains in all dependent variables thereby demonstrating clinical effectiveness of the intervention

The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of cognitive versus multisensory interventions on handwriting legibility of primary students referred to occupational therapy for handwriting difficulties. Using a randomized three-group research design, 72 first and second-grade students were assigned to either a cognitive intervention, multisensory intervention, or no intervention (control) group. Letter legibility was measured before and after 10 weeks of intervention. Analysis of variance of difference scores showed no statistically significant difference between the intervention groups. Grade 1 students improved with or without intervention, but grade 2 students showed dramatic improvement with cognitive intervention compared to multisensory intervention (d = 1.09) or no intervention (d = .92). Several students in both grades showed declining performance in the multisensory and control groups, but no students had lower legibility after cognitive intervention. These results challenge current occupational therapy practice of using a multisensory approach for remediation of handwriting difficulties, especially for students in grade 2.

Master of Applied Science (Occupational Therapy) / Background: Handwriting is an important activity which is commonly affected after a stroke. Handwriting research has predominantly involved children. In adults, the focus of handwriting research has been identifying forgery, doctors’ handwriting legibility and the kinematics of writing strokes. There are no known studies which provide information on unimpaired adult handwriting in real situations to guide stroke rehabilitation therapists. Aim: This study aims to describe the handwriting practices of 30 unimpaired adults aged 65 years and over to inform adult handwriting rehabilitation. Methods: This study used a cross-sectional observational design. Three data collection methods were used: self-report questionnaire, handwriting samples collected using a digital pen and a handwriting log. Following ethical approval, 30 older adults were recruited using snowball sampling. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Results: The median age of participants was 72 years. Three-quarters of participants scored less than 4 for legibility on a 4-point scale. A tripod pen grip was used by 97% of the sample. Variations in handwriting were evident in letter size, slant and spacing. Participants wrote very little, an average of three times per day (SD = 1.5) and a median of 18 words per occasion. Most handwriting (85%) involved self-generated, not copied or transcribed text. Participants stood whilst writing for 17% of handwriting occasions. The most common reasons for handwriting were taking notes (23%) and completing puzzles (22%). Discussion: Legibility in older adults may not depend exclusively on the handwriting script that a beginning writer was taught at school, but may be due to other factors, as a person ages. A comprehensive adult handwriting assessment and retraining program should consist of relevant handwriting activities, involve self-generated text and few words. Conclusion: Findings will contribute to the ongoing development of an ecologically valid adult handwriting assessment and help inform stroke rehabilitation practice.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of cognitive versus multisensory interventions on handwriting legibility of primary students referred to occupational therapy for handwriting difficulties. Using a randomized three-group research design, 72 first and second-grade students were assigned to either a cognitive intervention, multisensory intervention, or no intervention (control) group. Letter legibility was measured before and after 10 weeks of intervention. Analysis of variance of difference scores showed no statistically significant difference between the intervention groups. Grade 1 students improved with or without intervention, but grade 2 students showed dramatic improvement with cognitive intervention compared to multisensory intervention (d = 1.09) or no intervention (d = .92). Several students in both grades showed declining performance in the multisensory and control groups, but no students had lower legibility after cognitive intervention. These results challenge current occupational therapy practice of using a multisensory approach for remediation of handwriting difficulties, especially for students in grade 2.

The study examined the relationship between reversals and several factors in 141 Grade 2 mainstream learners from average classes in Department of Education schools. The sample consisted of 77 female learners and 64 male learners. 55 of the 141 learners were older than 8 years and 131 of the 141 learners were right-handed.The study made use of correlational research where two or more variables are compared by measuring differences and looking for a relationship. Incorrect letter formation, gender and reversals in reading showed a statically significant difference between the group who had reversals compared to the group that did not have reversals in the class program that was used to identify learners with reversals. Furthermore the data collected only on the learners with reversals showed a mean scaled that was below average for position in space, figure ground and visual closure as well as for the motor-reduced quotient of the Developmental Test of Visual Perception -2. This group also displayed a high percentage of learners with difficulty with directionality as well as with crossing their midline. The results of the study were limited by the research design, as well as the lack of standardized tests available to test some aspects. Difficulty in gaining permission from parents to include learners in the study was also experienced which limited the final sample size. Further studies focussing on the treatment of the factors that showed a statistically significant relationship with reversals was recommended as well as placing more emphasis correct letter formation when teaching handwriting and publishing the results of this study in a journal accessible to educators and therapists was recommended. Copyright / Dissertation (MOccTher)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Occupational Therapy / unrestricted