How hand steadiness can be distracted

How Hand Steadiness Can Be Distracted

Published Study on Hand Steadiness
The main idea of the experiment was to see which hand is preferred during certain tasks. In most cases there were more left handed people than right handed (Simon, 1964, p. 204). The participants were required to draw a straight line with both hands and see what one was straighter. When using their dominant hand they all could make almost perfect straight lines (Simon, 1964, p. 204). When the other hand was being trialed the line was not straight as it was with the dominant hand (Simon, 1964, p. 205). The results were that it was very easy to make a steady straight line with the hand they use all the time rather than using the hand they never use to write with at all (Simon, 1964, p. 205). The observer also took note of who was right handed and who was left handed. The observation ended with more people being right handed but as the experiment continued they recognized left handed people could do other tasks that they were asked with their right hand (Simon, 1964, p. 206). This article mainly concerned steadiness and different interactions with both hands and how they differ.
Purpose of Study
The main purpose of this study was to see if the intervention of occupying one hand with a task and watching how it will affect the other hands steadiness. The hand that was being used as an experiment was trying to keep a metal stick from touching the sides of a metal circle for thirty seconds. An intervention was put into play and the participant had to keep the stick inside the hole while tapping multiple fingers with their thumb. This was required to see if this effected how many times the circle got touched after adding an intervention.

Method
In this experiment, we used an impulse response monitor to show if hand movement was different when involving the other hand to complete a different task besides a steady hand. The participant’s dominant hand was taped to the metal pen to both the middle finger and index finger. The participant had to keep their hand off any surface and keep steady to avoid hitting the metal sides of the circle. Each time the circle was touched by the metal pen, the monitor would keep track of how many times the participant’s hand touched the sides and did not keep steady. A timer was also included in the experiment to keep track of when thirty seconds was up so the participant could start over while the observer recorded the number of times the monitor said the circle was touched. An intervention was added into the experiment after being recorded ten times. The participant then had to hold the stick steady with one hand while tapping all fingers with their thumb with the opposite hand. After ten times with the intervention the experiment went back to how it was in the beginning with just focusing on keeping a steady hand. After this experiment was conducted, a graph was made to indicate differences in the steadiness of the participant’s hand.
Results
After this study was conducted with one participant, the graph was recorded with the number of times the circle was touched and thirty tries split into ten for the baseline, intervention, and final baseline. The graph showed no obvious pattern of direction for a solid increase or decrease. It fluctuated mainly throughout the first baseline and intervention but got a little steady in baseline two. The increase and decreases of the graph were fluent. The graph was all over the place with each separate time that was recorded throughout the whole experiment.

Discussion
The graph did not turn out successful because the participant’s hand could stay steady and sometimes it did not. No change really occurred during the intervention as well. On the other hand, there were things noticed inside this experiment that made good reasons why the participant’s hand could not keep steady at times. In the first baseline that was being examined, some numbers were very low. The participant would get distracted at times with the environment around them and you would notice when the attention was not on the stick, the number of times the circle was hit got higher. In the first baseline examined, the ninth time the participant gave a head nod to a colleague inside the classroom and the number of times was high. The tenth time the participant was talking and not looking which also made the numbers fluctuate as well. While the participant was being observed it was recognized that whenever the environment got quiet, it was much easier for the participant to concentrate and get a lower score while also doing the intervention. When the participant would stop concentrating and doze off the number of times the stick hit sky rocketed. In the final baseline the participant was able to keep a steady hand throughout a whole trial for thirty seconds. The room was completely quiet and the participant was quite focused. After the participant hit zero times, the pace got steadier than normal through the remaining trials. The graph fluctuated a lot of times but it also had reasoning behind it.
References
SIMON, R. J. (1964). Steadiness, handedness, and hand preference. Perceptual and motor skills, 18(1), 203-206.