One of the most vital functions of the human visual system is categorization because it is essential for survival. Humans and primates have excellent capabilities in this area – people can categorize objects immediately, even in complicated visual settings. The processing of letters has been one of the central topics of visual categorization, and recent findings have proposed ways of facilitating letter categorization.
This paper reviews the work of Li and James (2016) on the relationship between handwriting and symbol learning in children. Li and James (2016) compared two popular hypotheses and discovered that output variability is the primary reason why writing facilitates symbol learning in children. The researchers’ findings are critical because they have the potential to influence the contemporary school curriculum. However, the generalizability of the results may be limited due to geographical and cultural factors – the population was not diverse, and the criteria by which the researchers chose children were perhaps too strict.
Hypotheses
It has been known that young children can develop their letter categorization abilities by practicing handwriting. However, the scientific community lacked studies that explore why this relationship persists. The researchers proposed two hypotheses – the relationship persists because of the visual-motor production of forms, or because variable instances of categories that are produced during handwriting positively affect neural systems (Li & James, 2016). These hypotheses are not new, but no substantial evidence exists to support either of them.
Methods
The study involved a group of 72 five-year-old children that included both male and female representatives equally. The children were selected from the same community, and they had to match two primary criteria to be eligible. The children had to know how to recognize and write at least 75% of the Roman alphabet, and they should have no knowledge of Greek letters. Furthermore, all recruited children were attending kindergarten or a pre-school program and were right-handed writers. These criteria significantly limit the generalizability because handedness features neurological differences. The researchers used six learning conditions that involved either visual-motor practice or visual-auditory practice.
Results and Discussion
Letter categorization has been traditionally taught by showing a letter to children, telling them its name, and teaching them how it sounds. However, scientific evidence suggests that handwriting practice can help children learn to categorize letters early and fast (Li & James, 2016). On the one hand, it has been discovered that children that practice handwriting regularly demonstrate more sound reading abilities. On the other hand, it has also been found that children with reading impairments often have writing disabilities (Li & James, 2016).
Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that handwriting is critical to letter categorization because knowledge of letters is essential to reading. Although humans know about the efficacy of handwriting in facilitating symbol learning, there is limited knowledge about why there is such a relationship. The study of Li & James (2016) assessed two hypotheses – facilitative impacts are a result of the visual-motor production of forms, or of the production of variable visual instances of categories.
The type of practice was not found to be a significant factor. Instead, conditions that required learning highly variable instances of categories resulted in more effective letter categorization. The researchers concluded that “learning perceptually variable instances of a category enhanced performance,” thus suggesting the latter hypothesis to be true (Li & James, 2016, p. 298). Although the idea that seeing different instances of a single category can expedite learning is not novel, the researchers proved that the notion also applies to letter categorization.
Conclusion
Li and James (2016) made a significant contribution to the scientific community with their research on the relationship between handwriting practice and symbol learning. The results have practical applications – schools may start encouraging young children to write by hand more often and integrate handwriting practice into the curriculum. However, more research is needed to increase the generalizability of the results. Namely, left-handed individuals should also be asked to participate in the study. To mitigate geographical factors, the participants should come from diverse backgrounds.
Reference
Li, J. X., & James, K. H. (2016). Handwriting generates variable visual output to facilitate symbol learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145(3), 298-313.