Studies of Typing from the LNR Research Group

The study of typing comprises a fascinating mixture of elements from motor skills, typewriter mechanics, anatomy, and cognitive control structures. Our research group initially started to study typing because it seemed an ideal example of highly skilled performance, with readily available experimental subjects and, with the advent of computer-controlled keyboards, a possibility of collecting large amounts of response time data. We expected the topic to be interesting, but were unprepared for the complexity of the phenomenon. Typing brings together many different functions, some of them heretofore ignored in cognitive psychology, yet that are of critical importance in understanding human performance. In particular, some of the problems of typing force us to confront issues of the control structures involved in highly skilled parallel-output performance, as well as questions relating to the representation of skilled motor acts within the human memory and motor control systems, all of which apply to a much more general range of concerns than typing.