Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the origin of spontaneous writinglike finger movements (“kusho”) in Japanese. To test the hypothesis that the “kusho” behavior was based on Kanji learning experience, people of three different culture areas (Japan, China, and other non-Kanji culture areas) were compared.
In experiment 1, 21 Chinese subjects engaged in the Kanji grapheme integration task, had their appearance rate of “Kusho” behavior and the cognitive function examined. The results showed that all Chinese did Kusho behavior mixed with a certain cognitive function to facilitate the integration of Kanji graphemes (FIG. 1).
In experiment 2, 83 Japanese college students, 21 Chinese college students, and 23 other non-Kanji culture students engaged in a three-English-word task (forward spell reading, backward spell reading, and word completion), the appearance rate of “Kusho” and its cognitive function were examined. The results of appearance rate showed that 60-80% Japanese students did “Kusho” behavior in each task, and non-kanji culture students did not show any “Kusho” behavior. On the other land, Chinese students showed a large difference in task condition (FIG. 4) The analysis of functional role of “Kusho” behavior in English word completion task (TABLE 1) showed that Japanese students revealed similar effect as in a Kanji grapheme integration task as for non-Kanji culture students, the “Kusho” proved to have rather disturbance effect (FIG. 3).
From these findings, cultural backgrownd of “Kusho” behavior and its specificity for Japanese were discussed.
