{"id":165,"date":"2019-08-01T20:32:06","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T20:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/?page_id=165"},"modified":"2019-08-07T18:22:07","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T18:22:07","slug":"principles-governing-stroke-patterns-in-writing","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/current-projects\/reading-and-writing-words\/principles-governing-stroke-patterns-in-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Principles Governing Stroke Patterns in Writing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At least for writing of manuscript (non-cursive) characters, any character could be written in many different ways:\u00a0 with different orders and directions of strokes.\u00a0 However, some of the possible stroke patterns are clearly \u2018better\u2019 than others.\u00a0 For example, stroke patterns 1) and 2) below are sensible ways to write A, but 3) seems less sensible, and is rarely if ever observed in actual writing.\u00a0 What, though, determines whether a stroke pattern is sensible?\u00a0 Researchers have proposed several principles (e.g., start at the top, don\u2019t lift the pen), but these principles frequently come into conflict, and are often violated.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-191 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/files\/2019\/08\/Slide-7-A.cropped-1024x447.png\" alt=\"Stroke patterns of the letter A\" width=\"1024\" height=\"447\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/files\/2019\/08\/Slide-7-A.cropped-1024x447.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/files\/2019\/08\/Slide-7-A.cropped-300x131.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/files\/2019\/08\/Slide-7-A.cropped-768x336.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/files\/2019\/08\/Slide-7-A.cropped.png 1785w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In her recent dissertation, Ph.D. student Gali Ellenblum addressed this issue via computational modeling carried out within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT).\u00a0 Rather than hard-and-fast rules that must be followed, OT posits soft constraints that can be violated.\u00a0 OT further assumes a ranking of constraints, such that some are more important than others.\u00a0 In this framework, the optimal forms\u2014in this case the optimal stroke patterns for writing characters\u2014are determined by which constraints are violated and how highly the constraints are ranked.\u00a0 A stroke pattern that violates only low-ranked constraints will be better (more optimal) than a pattern that violates higher-ranked constraints.<\/p>\n<p>Gali Ellenblum applied this framework to writing in English and Hebrew, showing that both the stroke patterns taught in school, and the patterns adults actually use in their writing, can be modeled successfully with ranked violable constraints.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-192 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/files\/2019\/08\/Slide-13-alpha.cropped-1024x612.png\" alt=\"The alphabet. Typical writing stroke patterns taught in US schools. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"612\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/files\/2019\/08\/Slide-13-alpha.cropped-1024x612.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/files\/2019\/08\/Slide-13-alpha.cropped-300x179.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/files\/2019\/08\/Slide-13-alpha.cropped-768x459.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/files\/2019\/08\/Slide-13-alpha.cropped.png 1542w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-198 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/files\/2019\/08\/Slide-14-Hebrew-letter.cropped-1024x593.png\" alt=\"Examples of instructional materials for teaching Hebrew letter stroke patterns in Isreal.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"593\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/files\/2019\/08\/Slide-14-Hebrew-letter.cropped-1024x593.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/files\/2019\/08\/Slide-14-Hebrew-letter.cropped-300x174.png 300w, https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/files\/2019\/08\/Slide-14-Hebrew-letter.cropped-768x444.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/files\/2019\/08\/Slide-14-Hebrew-letter.cropped.png 1868w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At least for writing of manuscript (non-cursive) characters, any character could be written in many different ways:\u00a0 with different orders and directions of strokes.\u00a0 However, some of the possible stroke patterns are clearly \u2018better\u2019 than others.\u00a0 For example, stroke patterns 1) and 2) below are sensible ways to write A, but 3) seems less sensible, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"parent":157,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-165","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":200,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/165\/revisions\/200"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.krieger.jhu.edu\/mccloskey-lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}