TYPING
Studies of typing patterns offer insights into the last (motor) stage of the writing process when a PC is in use. Average typing speed is seven to eight strokes per second; but evidence of the way in which typists execute their writing plans comes from the regularity of the finger strokes and the duration of the intervals between them. The following conclusions have been reached:
In terms of rhythm, the unit of typing seems to be the word rather than the phrase or sentence.
Intervals between strokes are greatest at the beginnings and ends of words.
Intervals between strokes are longer for letter strings which occur infrequently.
Syllable boundaries appear to have some effect; the frequent sequence-th- is typed faster in PATHETIC than in PORTHOLE.
Performance declines with nonsensical letter strings, but not with non-words that bear a resemblance to existing ones.
The evidence may offer insights into the way in which words are retrieved from the brain, or insights into the typing process itself. Typing is clearly an activity that demands a great deal of conscious control at the outset, but that gradually becomes proceduralised into a set of automatic keystroke sequences, particularly for very frequent words such as THE. It may be that the keystrokes made by a typist are stored as an independent set of procedures (hence the faster performance with more frequent letter sequences). Or it may be that they are linked to an orthographic representation of each word, or even to a phonological representation.
See also: Slips of the Pen, Writing
Further reading: Garman (1990: 234–6)
