The impact of graphic motor programs and detailed visual analysis on letter-like shape recognition

Recent research suggests that graphic motor programs acquired through writing are part of letter representations and contribute to their recognition. Indeed, learning new letter-like shapes through handwriting gave rise to better recognition than learning through typing on a keyboard. However, handwriting and typing do not differ solely by the nature of the motor activity. Handwriting requires a detailed visual analysis in order to reproduce all elements of the target shape. In contrast, typing relies on visual discrimination between graphic forms and does not require such detailed processing. The aim of the present study was to disentangle the respective contribution of visual analysis and graphomotor knowledge. We compared handwriting and typing to learning by composition, a new method which requires a detailed visual analysis of the target without the specific graphomotor activity. Participants composed the target symbols by selecting elementary features from the set displayed on the screen and dragging them in the appropriate position. In four experiments, adult participants learned sets of symbols through handwriting, typing or composition. Recognition tests were administered immediately after the learning phase and again two to three weeks later. Taken together, the results of the four experiments confirm the importance of the detailed visual analysis and provide no evidence for an influence of motor knowledge.