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Handwriting is a necessary part of our daily life. Despite the fact that we write shopping lists, letters, notes, greeting and birthday cards  without paying much attention, our handwriting changes with age. Until now, it is not known how and why it is changing.

Background and aims

Information about handwriting, its characteristics and linguistic components, is obtained from semantic, lingual, phonemic, and writing movement analyses. Initial studies suggest that there are connections between handwriting and memory performance. However, it is not yet exactly known what these relationships are and how they are specific to the  German language context. Furthermore, it could be that there are factors in our life that influence our handwriting without us noticing.

Therefore, the aim of this study is to gain a more detailed knowledge of handwriting changes in old age and to investigate how handwriting changes with age and which factors play a role in these changes. We are also interested in connections with cognitive performance. In addition, we address the question, which handwriting characteristics are of diagnostic relevance.

Course of the study

As part of the study, we will ask you a few questions about yourself and your handwriting on a tablet. Moreover, you will be asked to do some mental and handwriting tasks on the tablet.

In addition to your first participation in the study, a follow-up survey will take place after one year and a second follow-up survey after a second year. The study thus encompasses a total of three survey dates within two years. Participation in the study takes about an hour each time.