Directional Preference in Writing

Abstract

The paper looks into the origin and the development with age of the preference to make either clockwise or counterclockwise curves and contours in writing and drawing. Twenty-six subjects of four age groups performed four writing and drawing tasks. Two of these were writing single symbols and accurately copying patterns; the other two were free scribbling and drawing repeated circles at a high rate. The developing directional preferences that were observed between four years of age and adulthood suggest that two semi-independent motor systems are involved in writing: one, more primitive, for rapid non-figurative tasks evolving from flexion-first to extension-first; the other, which occurs later but more rapidly under a higher degree of cognitive control, for precision and symbolic functions, favoring counterclockwise curves, irrespective of the writing hand.