254 
Charles H. Judd. 
The first result of the practice was that each of the persons 
became clearly conscious of the fact that his own writing contained 
many irregular slopes. Attention to this matter grew so keen that it 
extended to the writing produced by others, and all the observers 
expressed surprise at the degree of irregularity that had, up to this 
time, escaped notice. There was a very general agreement that the 
recognition of this irregularity of slope was a definite experience re¬ 
sulting from conscious comparison of visual percepts. 
As soon as the irregularities were recognized, and the effort to 
correct these irregularities commenced, there was general agreement 
as to the difficulty of finding any guide to follow in actual writing. 
The effort to refer back to earlier letters in a given line, the effort 
to refer to letters in the line above, the effort to carry in memory 
à sort of standard angle with the horizontal line, all these devices 
are mentioned as methods of securing uniformity. There is not a 
single case among the early records of the ten adults in which 
reference is made to any form of movement. All the devices mentioned 
emphasize the visual guides as the ones constantly referred to. Several 
noted the tendency to write more slowly and carefully, and one noted 
that it cramped his hand to write regularly. All found it possible 
to improve by constant attention to the slope of the letters. Several 
noted that there were days when the letters were very much more 
regular than on other days. Many times the days of irregular move¬ 
ments were described in terms which indicated that the physical 
condition of the writer was not good, but not infrequently the records 
merely remarked that there was no apparent reason. 
Nothing could he more obvious from the records than the fact 
that the whole practice of these subjects consisted in a purely empirical 
effort to approach an end which was always presented to consciousness 
in terms of visual perception, and never presented in terms of the move¬ 
ments which were the real means be which the end must be reached. 
The movements were no more intelligently or directly guided than are 
those of a child. The whole attention was concentrated on the product. 
After practice has been going on for four weeks with some evi¬ 
dences of improvement, but no definite notion on the part of the 
subjects as to how they might accelerate the improvement, they were 
all asked to practice by writing a single word at the beginning of the