Grans esdeveniments esportius

Given the relatively low reliability of the scales used in the principal components analysis and the fact that many of the individual scores were not normally distributed, it was decided also to carry out non-parametric tests of the main effects of year and task on individual letters. This was designed to check whether the effects observed with the overall scales were also present for the individual letters contributing to the scales. If they are, then we would expect a4, d2, o2, r2 and s2 to show significant effects of year.

Table 5.4 shows the median and inter-quartile range values for feature use for each feature scored for all age groups and for all tasks. Because medians are used, there are some cases which appear to have identical scores of 0.0 or 1.0 but in fact there are small differences between some of them albeit they are all highly skewed. Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to test the significance of the differences between the year groups and Friedman tests were used to test the significance of differences between the tasks. In order to check whether there were any interactions between age and task, two- way parametric analyses of variance were also carried out (notwithstanding the inappropriate nature of the data for such an analysis). However, none of these were statistically significant, so the analysis presented here is restricted to the main effects of either task or year. Significant effects of age are indicated by bold font in the All Tasks row and significant effects of task are indicated by bold font in the All Years rows. The α level was

conservatively set at 0.01 to take account of the many comparisons being made.

In addition, Mann-Whitney U tests were used to make pairwise comparisons for those features showing main effects of age. Wilcoxon signed rank tests were carried out to make pairwise comparisons for the features showing main effects of task. In both sets of tests the α level was again set at 0.01.

Table 5.4 Median (and inter-quartile ranges) for feature use proportions †

Feature Task Y2 Y4 Y6 Y8 Y10 Y12 All Years

a2 - low tail Compose 0.00(0.00) 0.00(0.00) 0.00(0.06) 0.00(0.09) 0.05(0.10) 0.13(0.39) 0.00(0.08)

retrace - Neat 0.00(0.00) 0.00(0.00) 0.00(0.00) 0.00(0.05) 0.00(0.14) 0.08(0.19) 0.00(0.05) Fast 0.00(0.05) 0.00(0.00) 0.00(0.05) 0.03(0.14) 0.05(0.26) 0.20(0.55) 0.00(0.10) All Tasks 0.00(0.00) 0.00(0.00) 0.00(0.00) 0.00(0.09) 0.05(0.14) 0.13(0.35) 0.00(0.05) a3 - closed Compose 0.38(0.46) 0.82(0.34) 0.68(0.44) 0.55(0.67) 0.61(0.32) 0.75(0.55) 0.69(0.53) loop - Neat 0.52(0.41) 0.73(0.42) 0.70(0.44) 0.48(0.59) 0.60(0.44) 0.83(0.53) 0.64(0.45) Fast 0.56(0.51) 0.80(0.35) 0.70(0.28) 0.40(0.43) 0.60(0.39) 0.75(0.63) 0.63(0.44) All Tasks 0.53(0.42) 0.80(0.36) 0.70(0.35) 0.45(0.55) 0.60(0.39) 0.75(0.60) 0.65(0.50)

a4 - upward initial Compose 0.43(0.41) 0.77(0.46) 0.80(0.20) 0.80(0.50) 1.00(0.15) 1.00(0.29) 0.83(0.50) pen movement - Neat 0.50(0.48) 0.86(0.50) 0.83(0.48) 0.83(0.63) 1.00(0.14) 1.00(0.19) 0.85(0.55) Fast 0.61(0.33) 0.75(0.54) 0.73(0.40) 0.83(0.54) 1.00(0.24) 1.00(0.35) 0.80(0.50)

All Tasks 0.50(0.40) 0.80(0.50) 0.78(0.39) 0.80(0.53) 1.00(0.15) 1.00(0.25) 0.84(0.50)

d1 - proportionately Compose 0.00(0.40) 0.25(0.60) 0.37(0.50) 0.69(0.66) 0.87(0.51) 0.57(0.95) 0.43(0.76) tall loop - Neat 0.12(0.33) 0.28(0.69) 0.38(0.49) 0.48(0.71) 0.93(0.46) 0.62(0.91) 0.43(0.78) Fast 0.31(0.55) 0.12(0.55) 0.38(0.54) 0.58(0.63) 0.83(0.44) 0.48(0.81) 0.45(0.70) All Tasks 0.12(0.44) 0.23(0.60) 0.38(0.50) 0.59(0.68) 0.89(0.44) 0.57(0.90) 0.44(0.75) d2 - flattened Compose 0.57(0.73) 0.27(0.61) 0.43(0.67) 0.57(0.67) 0.82(0.46) 0.92(0.50) 0.62(0.68) loop - Neat 0.32(0.62) 0.23(0.51) 0.53(0.58) 0.53(0.48) 0.90(0.43) 0.88(0.73) 0.54(0.70) Fast 0.43(0.48) 0.23(0.41) 0.68(0.48) 0.60(0.58) 0.88(0.46) 0.90(0.40) 0.60(0.59) All Tasks 0.45(0.67) 0.25(0.52) 0.56(0.57) 0.56(0.55) 0.86(0.47) 0.90(0.50) 0.58(0.65)

e2 - high curve Compose 0.11(0.39) 0.05(0.11) 0.10(0.28) 0.15(0.36) 0.18(0.32) 0.15(0.24) 0.10(0.29) bisection - Neat 0.09(0.48) 0.05(0.14) 0.10(0.23) 0.05(0.20) 0.18(0.34) 0.10(0.20) 0.10(0.25) Fast 0.11(0.31) 0.10(0.15) 0.15(0.14) 0.10(0.13) 0.25(0.15) 0.15(0.14) 0.15(0.15)

All Tasks 0.10(0.35) 0.05(0.15) 0.13(0.15) 0.10(0.20) 0.20(0.29) 0.15(0.19) 0.10(0.20)

i2 - high dot - Compose 0.83(0.63) 0.73(0.28) 0.75(0.36) 0.83(0.40) 0.66(0.34) 0.75(0.57) 0.75(0.38) Neat 0.86(0.59) 0.70(0.43) 0.65(0.38) 0.73(0.28) 0.68(0.49) 0.73(0.70) 0.70(0.47) Fast 0.71(0.57) 0.60(0.30) 0.64(0.50) 0.77(0.26) 0.66(0.38) 0.72(0.63) 0.70(0.40) All Tasks 0.80(0.67) 0.70(0.34) 0.67(0.38) 0.75(0.30) 0.66(0.38) 0.75(0.63) 0.71(0.39) i3 - dot to Compose 0.36(0.79) 0.46(0.39) 0.64(0.35) 0.69(0.62) 0.73(0.52) 0.55(0.58) 0.56(0.53) right - Neat 0.40(0.41) 0.35(0.44) 0.47(0.33) 0.58(0.53) 0.58(0.69) 0.55(0.64) 0.50(0.50) Fast 0.42(0.44) 0.41(0.37) 0.52(0.37) 0.73(0.46) 0.73(0.47) 0.65(0.63) 0.59(0.45) All Tasks 0.40(0.55) 0.41(0.39) 0.50(0.35) 0.70(0.55) 0.69(0.53) 0.60(0.61) 0.55(0.51) n2 - initial Compose 1.00(0.84) 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.06) 1.00(0.05) 1.00(0.48) 1.00(0.04) downstroke - Neat 1.00(0.19) 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.04) 1.00(0.09) 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.24) 1.00(0.05) Fast 1.00(0.33) 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.23) 1.00(0.05) 0.95(0.74) 1.00(0.10) All Tasks 1.00(0.33) 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.09) 1.00(0.05) 1.00(0.48) 1.00(0.05)

o1 - starts Compose 0.90(0.35) 0.90(0.29) 0.90(0.48) 0.83(0.33) 0.84(0.36) 0.83(0.48) 0.86(0.36)

to right - Neat 0.89(0.45) 0.90(0.23) 0.88(0.44) 0.85(0.50) 0.90(0.35) 0.83(0.40) 0.89(0.34)

Fast 0.90(0.19) 0.92(0.24) 0.95(0.28) 0.90(0.30) 0.95(0.29) 0.95(0.19) 0.92(0.25) All Tasks 0.90(0.31) 0.90(0.25) 0.90(0.29) 0.85(0.39) 0.90(0.35) 0.85(0.39) 0.90(0.30)

o2 - tall and Compose 0.32(0.72) 0.34(0.39) 0.25(0.34) 0.30(0.61) 0.10(0.27) 0.03(0.24) 0.20(0.45) narrow - Neat 0.35(0.66) 0.60(0.63) 0.15(0.39) 0.25(0.59) 0.08(0.28) 0.00(0.30) 0.20(0.60) Fast 0.38(0.56) 0.40(0.55) 0.23(0.35) 0.15(0.50) 0.10(0.39) 0.00(0.31) 0.20(0.45) All Tasks 0.37(0.65) 0.40(0.54) 0.20(0.36) 0.25(0.55) 0.10(0.29) 0.00(0.24) 0.20(0.45) r1 - open Compose 0.00(0.32) 0.00(0.09) 0.10(0.16) 0.06(0.24) 0.03(0.12) 0.00(0.14) 0.00(0.15) retrace - Neat 0.00(0.20) 0.00(0.11) 0.05(0.23) 0.05(0.11) 0.00(0.11) 0.03(0.10) 0.00(0.13) Fast 0.10(0.25) 0.06(0.18) 0.11(0.39) 0.05(0.19) 0.13(0.31) 0.05(0.15) 0.09(0.20) All Tasks 0.03(0.27) 0.00(0.11) 0.09(0.24) 0.05(0.16) 0.05(0.20) 0.05(0.11) 0.05(0.20) r2 - high Compose 0.83(0.46) 0.69(0.45) 0.90(0.33) 0.93(0.48) 0.97(0.15) 0.95(0.19) 0.90(0.33) retrace - Neat 0.74(0.48) 0.61(0.49) 0.82(0.26) 0.90(0.40) 0.98(0.15) 0.90(0.24) 0.85(0.39) Fast 0.84(0.35) 0.71(0.41) 0.89(0.25) 0.90(0.52) 1.00(0.05) 0.95(0.25) 0.90(0.32) All Tasks 0.81(0.39) 0.69(0.42) 0.88(0.25) 0.90(0.45) 1.00(0.13) 0.95(0.23) 0.88(0.35) s1 - script Compose 1.00(0.00) 1.0(0.00) 1.0(0.00) 1.00(0.05) 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.39) 1.00(0.00) style - * Neat 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.20) 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.19) 1.00(0.00) Fast 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.06) 1.00(0.31) 1.00(0.04) 1.00(0.28) 1.00(0.00) All Tasks 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.19) 1.00(0.00) 1.00(0.19) 1.00(0.00) s2 - shallow Compose 0.82(0.55) 0.88(0.34) 0.86(0.59) 0.83(0.50) 0.88(0.39) 0.83(0.56) 0.85(0.50) centre axis - Neat 0.86(0.62) 0.88(0.38) 0.88(0.45) 0.83(0.46) 0.90(0.34) 0.90(0.39) 0.89(0.45) Fast 0.90(0.50) 0.89(0.40) 0.92(0.44) 0.80(0.45) 0.90(0.45) 0.75(0.58) 0.85(0.48) All Tasks 0.87(0.57) 0.88(0.38) 0.90(0.49) 0.80(0.50) 0.90(0.44) 0.83(0.50) 0.86(0.49)

t1 - crossbar - Compose 0.86(0.35) 0.92(0.29) 0.92(0.33) 0.95(0.20) 0.90(0.10) 0.84(0.30) 0.90(0.25) longer to right Neat 0.78(0.45) 0.79(0.20) 0.93(0.24) 0.90(0.20) 0.90(0.24) 0.85(0.44) 0.90(0.32) Fast 0.95(0.40) 0.88(0.31) 0.93(0.24) 0.85(0.28) 0.93(0.19) 0.83(0.34) 0.90(0.30) All Tasks 0.85(0.41) 0.86(0.21) 0.92(0.25) 0.93(0.20) 0.90(0.15) 0.83(0.35) 0.90(0.30) t2 - high Compose 0.72(0.55) 0.50(0.47) 0.60(0.46) 0.50(0.51) 0.60(0.73) 0.58(0.71) 0.59(0.55) crossbar - Neat 0.69(0.49) 0.60(0.50) 0.55(0.30) 0.65(0.48) 0.60(0.73) 0.63(0.81) 0.61(0.52) Fast 0.67(0.54) 0.60(0.41) 0.55(0.39) 0.53(0.49) 0.65(0.69) 0.50(0.79) 0.55(0.55) All Tasks 0.69(0.52) 0.60(0.45) 0.55(0.34) 0.53(0.45) 0.60(0.70) 0.55(0.75) 0.60(0.55)

†Note: the nearer to 0 or 1 that a value is, the closer the feature corresponds to the associated descriptor. For example, for feature t2 a value of 1 would correspond to all having a high crossbar and a value of 0 would correspond to none having a high crossbar.

Bold font in the All Years column indicate data showing a significant effect of task across all years (n=144, df=2, p< .01)

Bold font in the All Tasks rows shows a significant effect of age shown by Kruskal-Wallis chi- square n=144, df=5, p≤0.01

5.7.1 Main effects of age

The features that show main effects of age do so mainly due to differences between older and younger writers. For feature a2, Y12 differs from Y2, Y4 and Y6 (with older children showing a greater tendency to do low tail retraces); for a4, Y2 differs from Y10 and Y12 (with the older children using an upward pen movement at the start of the letter more often); for d1, the differences are between Y2 and Y8 and Y10 and Y4 differing from Y10 (with the older children having a proportionately taller loop); for o2, Y2 differs from Y10 and y12 and Y4 differs from Y12 (with older children producing a more laterally elongated form of the letter o); and finally for r2, Y4 differs from Y10 and Y12 (with the older children using a lower retrace to the letter r).

5.7.2 Main effects of task

The features that show main effects of task all did so because of a change that occurred when writing fast in comparison with writing either neatly and/or when composing. Specifically, fast writing tends to have a lower retrace to the letter a (feature a2); tends to place the i dot more often to the right (feature i3); is more likely to use an introductory stroke to the letter n (feature n2); is more likely to start the letter o to the right (feature o1); tends to use a more open retrace to the letter r (feature r1); and is more prone to writing an elongated form of the letter s (feature s2). All of these feature usages do make sense in that the writing movements involved tend to be

reduced or show a driving effect of the left to right movement that is likely to be exaggerated when writing fast.

5.7.3 Comparison with results of principal components analysis The Lateral Elongation component resulting from the principal component analysis in the previous section contained five main features, namely a4, d2, o2 (negatively loaded), r2 and s2. As noted above when examining the main effects of age, all individual features (except s2) also show significant main effects of age, providing additional support for the reliability of the outcome of the PCA. Features a4, d2 and r2 show a linear increase with age and o2 shows a corresponding linear decrease with age (as it is negatively loaded). The feature s2 does not show a significant effect of age but it does only load weakly onto the Lateral Elongation component. Of the two features that were marginally excluded from this component, a2 and r1, a2 does show a significant effect of age but r1 does not. None of the features making up the Lateral Elongation component show significant main effects of task.

The Movement Integration component had six features loading onto it of which two show significant main effects of age (namely features a3 and d1) whereas the remaining features do not show significant effects of age (namely features i2, n2, o1 and t2). The effects of age on a3 and d1 are not simple linear increases or decreases, but show a less coherent pattern of change with age. Overall, the six features that contribute to the Movement