Mirror Hand Tracing Experiment, Method

Mirror Tracing: Performance of Non-Dominant Hand Post-Dominant Hand Practice


Method:
An apparatus was set up that, when a test subject’s hand entered it, they would no longer be able to see their hand or the piece of paper under it, but rather would look just above their hand into a mirror which would display their hand and the tracing paper, but now visually augmented and/or disoriented because of the mirror. The test subject needed to trace a six-pointed star, but within two lines that were spaced approximately 1 centimeter apart. The subject began tracing through the star shape, and needed to go all the way through it until s/he reached their starting place.

The time it took to complete this task was recorded in seconds, and afterward each test was scored. The scoring system worked in that an “error” was classified as the subject’s pen having crossed the line of the star shape. Each line-cross counted as 1 error. Test subjects first performed this task with their non-dominant hand 3 times, and then with their dominant hand 14 times. Finally, the performed 3 more tests with their non-dominant hand again. No breaks were allowed, despite any fatigue the subjects may have been experiencing.

The dependant variable in this experiment was the ability of each test subject to navigate the star shape’s innards. The independent variable was the subject’s hand, switching between dominant and non-dominant to measure practice effects. No groups were formed because of a lack of test subjects. Each subject was tested in the same manner as the others. Data were collected in seconds and number of errors on a spreadsheet. The data were analyzed through calculation of all 3 test subjects’ average performance with regard to both time and errors, and performing a statistical analysis that revealed one- and two-tailed p-value test results, after graphing these data.