Effects of fatigue on handwritten signatures

This research aimed to study the effects of fatigue on handwritten signatures. It is concluded from the study that fatigue affected handwritten signatures.

It is usually accepted that handwriting is a behavioural characteristic that modifies and changes along time, stress, it can be physical or mental stress, mood, age, etc. Fatigue is also a factor that affects handwriting not so much but does. Whether children or adults, everyone’s handwriting or signatures change due to fatigue.

Out of all the handwriting features the ones observed to be affected and altered by fatigue are an increase in the relative size of letters, increase in the absolute size of signatures, decrease in the absolute size of signatures, decreasing legibility of the signatures, increase of tremors, vanishing of underscores, line quality. Many features did not change like slant, alignment, and formation of allographs.

The following handwriting characteristics were found to be most affected or changed by fatigue: lateral expansion, legibility, line quality, diminishing underscores, tremors, spacing between letters, and increase in speed. These effects were observed to occur in both the absolute and relative sizes of signatures. Various features, such as skill, slant, alignment, style, and allograph creation, did not exhibit any significant changes over time. When compared to those who did not have the habit of writing or signing their names every day, those who did so regularly exhibited fewer signs of exhaustion.

It was observed that participants who were habitual of writing did not show noticeable changes as compared to ones who did not write often. Even old-aged people who had the habit of writing did not show major changes. Due to a shortage of time the sample size was restricted which cannot give generalized results. But it’s concluded that fatigue does effects the handwriting or handwritten signatures of an individual whether a child or an adult. Criteria of imparting fatigue in participants were kept the same throughout irrespective of whether they are habitual of writing or not. The main thought now is how much these features vary among individuals.

Abstract:

This research aimed to observe whether fatigue affects a person’s handwritten signatures. Handwritten signatures are the most socially and legally acceptable way of identification. Researchers have worked before on fatigue influencing handwriting but no such study has been conducted on handwritten signatures. Handwritten signatures help us identify a person from a group of people and can tell us about their physical as well as mental status.

A total of 100 subjects were taken and a total of 4200 signature samples were taken and observed to study the effects of fatigue on handwritten signatures. This study included 11 characteristics of handwriting that were observed and the changes caused by fatigue in them. A total of 11 features were observed in two groups of signatures, the first group consisting of the initial 6 signatures and the second group consisting of the last 6 signatures. Group 1 was collectively compared to group 2. No other standards were set for comparison and both the groups were compared with each other. The study found that people with good handwriting and who were habitual of writing completed the task without showing major changes in their signatures as compared to the ones who did not write on daily basis irrespective of gender and age. The result was a rapid tiring of the participants. Though we cannot measure how much a person is tired or their level of tiredness so, the criteria were kept the same throughout for every participant to impart physical fatigue into them so that we can see noticeable changes. We assumed that at the time of the sample taking all the participants were not experiencing any physical fatigue. It varies from person to person how much fatigue affects their handwriting or handwritten signatures. Since it was a study so all the criteria were kept the same throughout for each participant. Participants were asked to write the same sentence on a sheet of paper to impart fatigue and make them physically tired. They were not allowed to take any break in between or talk either. Physical fatigue does affect handwriting and even handwritten signatures. Noticeable changes were observed when initial and final signatures were compared. Features like the absolute size of the signatures, lateral expansion, legibility, presence of underscore and more changed with time and increase of samples. Time intervals are taken in between also effects the signatures. People with slow handwriting showed fewer changes as compared to ones who write fast.

Riddhi Sharma

M.Sc. Forensic Science- Batch 2020-2022

Contact: sharmariddhi32@gmail.com

Supervisor: Priyam Lakar