Discriminability and identifiability of the human hand based on its quantified complexity

Photographs of human hands were quantified according to a method suggested by Attneave (1954). The over-all complexity of the hands' contours did not affect the accuracy with which pairs and non-pairs of hands could be discriminiated. However, significantly more errors were made in identifying the mates of hands whose thumb regions were relatively complex. These results suggest that the contours of nonlaboratory forms are quantifiable and amenable to parametric investigation.