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Cognitive Aspects of Skilled Typewriting Edited by William E. Cooper Springer-Verlag New York Heidelberg Berlin
William E. Cooper Harvard University William James Hall 33 Kirkland Street Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, U.S.A. Current address: Department of Psychology University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa 52242, U.S.A. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry under title: Cognitive aspects of skilled typewriting. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Typewriting-Psychological aspects. 2. Cognition. I. Cooper, William E. Z49.C63 1982 652.3 82-19237 With 48 Figures 1983 by Springer-Verlag New York Inc. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1983 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form without written permission from Springer-Verlag, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010, U.S.A. The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, etc., in this publication, even if the former are not especially identified, is not to be taken as a sign that such names, as understood by the Trade Marks and Merchandise Marks Act, may accordingly be used freely by anyone. Typeset by Publishers Service, Bozeman, Montana. 987654321 ISBN-13: 978-1-4612-5472-0 e-isbn-13: 978-1-4612-5470-6 DOI:l 0.1007/978-1-4612-5470-6
Preface This volume marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of William Book's 1908 The Psychology of Skill, in which typewriting received its first large-scale treatment from a psychological standpoint. As Book realized early on, this form of human behavior is particularly well suited to testing psychological theories of complex motor skill and its acquisition, presenting as it does a task that richly engages cognitive and motor components of programming, yet involves a form of response output that can be readily quantified. Now that typewriting is practiced so widely in workday circumstances, studying this activity offers the additional prospect of practical applicability. Until recently, relatively few studies had been conducted on the psychology of typewriting. One might speculate that this dearth of interest stemmed in part from the fact that researchers themselves rarely undertook the activity, delegating it instead to the secretarial pool. Psychological research on piano playing has produced a literature more sizable than the one on typewriting, yet the latter activity has probably been practiced for many more total human hours in this century. But contemporary developments in word processing technology have moved the typewriter into the researcher's office, and in recent years interest in accompanying psychological issues has grown. This book was conceived when the need arose for a source book of current research set against the backdrop of earlier efforts. By 1981, an international cast of psychologists were developing fruitful research programs, although relatively few published reports had emerged. Some prospective contributors shared my concern that the venture might be premature, but this worry was offset by those who expressed the belief that the time was now ripe for a basic volume on whose contents future studies could build. If psychological research on typewriting continues to develop in proportion to the increasing utility of this behavior in the workplace, there is reason to believe that these beginnings will give rise to a highly elaborated
vi Preface theory of this important skill with attendant applications in many circumstances. As editor, I am especially grateful to the other authors for their dedication, enthusiasm, and promptness, all undeterred by a variety of environmental hazards during the course of this project. Thanks also go to Kristina Damon and Audrey Ham, who assisted in preparing aspects of the final draft, including many last minute details. Support was provided by a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Spring 1983 William E. Cooper
Contents 1. Introduction....... 1 William E. Cooper Early History of the Typewriter... 1 Methods of Typewriting and Keyboard Arrangements... 5 The Psychology of Typewriting... 8 Feedback Systems... 14 Learning to Type... 20 Retention of Skilled Typing.... 26 Domain of Planning... 27 Different Input Modes... 31 Different Output Modes... 34 Conclusion... 35 2. A Glossary of Terms Including a Classification of Typing Errors... 39 Donald R. Gentner, Jonathan T. Grudin, Serge Larochelle, Donald A. Norman, and David E. Rumelhart Basic Terms....... 39 Terminology for Letter Sequences... 40 Specification of Hand, Finger, and Position: The [H,F,P] Triple 41 Terminology for Errors... 41 3. Studies of Typing from the LNR Research Group... 45 Donald A. Norman and David E. Rumelhart Studies of Typing: An Overview... 45 Some Basic Phenomena... 52 A Cooperative Algorithm Simulation Model of Typing... 54
Vlll Contents 4. A Comparison of Skilled and Novice Performance in Discontinuous Typing............................... 67 Serge Larochelle Experiment 1........................................ 68 Experiment 2....................................... 83 General Discussion.................................. 91 5. Keystroke Timing in Transcription Typing............... 95 Donald R. Gentner Method....................................... 95 Development of Typing Skill........................ 96 Variability in Skilled Typing......................... 100 Models of Keystroke Timing......................... 112 Discussion....................................... 117 6. Error Patterns in Novice and Skilled Transcription Typing.......................................... 121 Jonathan T. Grudin The Lessenberry Confusion Matrix........................ 122 Novice and Expert Confusion Matrices.............. 125 The Development of Skilled Typing...................... 134 Summary....................................... 137 Appendix....................................... 140 7. Skilled Typing: A Characterization Based on the Distribution of Times Between Responses.............. 145 John Long, Ian Nimmo-Smith, and Andy Whitefield Introduction.......................................... 145 Characterizing Individual Differences............. 148 Characterizing Skill Acquisition............................ 163 Characterizing the Effect of a Task Variable................ 168 Characterizing the Effect of a Motivational Variable........ 173 Bringing Fluency Under Experimental Control.............. 178 Overall Discussion and Conclusion...................... 184
Contents ix 8. Time, Information, and the Various Spans in Typewriting 197 Gordon D. Logan Introduction... 197 Span Data... 198 Theoretical Issues... 211 Concluding Remarks... 222 9. Determinants of Interkey Times in Typing... 225 David J. Ostry Hand Movements... '.. 225 Word Length... 229 Delayed Response...... 233 Typing Sentences....... 235 Longer Words....... 238 Single-Word Strategies... 240 General Discussion... 243 10. Mirror-Image Movements in Typing... 247 Kevin G. Munhall and David J. Ostry Method........... 248 Results and Discussion... 250 11. Actively Learning To Use a Word Processor... 259 John M. Carroll and Robert L. Mack Introduction... 259 Method and Overview... 260 Learning by Thinking... 263 Learning in an Exploratory Environment... 276 Finale: Active Learning... 279 12. Knowledge of Word Frequency as an Aid for Text Editing....... 283 Susan F. Ehrlich, Kristina Damon, and William E. Cooper Case 1....... 285 Case 2... 293
x Contents Case 3... 295 Case 4........... 295 Summary.......................... 295 13. Certain Problems Associated with the Design of Input Keyboards for Japanese Writing... 305 Hisao Yamada Introduction... 305 Japanese Writing System... 307 Typewriting in Japan.............. 312 Various Typing Methods for Japanese Writing... 315 Ergonomic Aspects of Various Tasks and Touch Typing... 322 Touch Typing Viewed as a Choice Versus Reaction Time Paradigm..................... 325 Some Two-Stroke Touch-Typing Systems... 327 Psychophysiological Evaluation of Touch Typing..... 331 Coding of Kanzis Based on Linguistic and Graphic Structures.333 Sound-Based Codes May Not Be Optimal... 338 Association Codes and Interference With Pattern Typing... 341 Kana-to-Kanzi Conversion and Inetractive Typing... 344 Possible Hemispheric Lateralization of Cerebral Functions in Typing... 348 Toward the Best Method of Copy Typing for Professionals... 355 Code Array Representation for Two-Stroke Codes....... 359 Evaluation of Codes Based on Hand and Finger Motions... 364 Some Examples Optimized for Hand and Finger Motions... 373 Educational Aspects........ 385 Concluding Remarks... 394 Author Index... 409 Subject Index......... 415
Contributors John M. Carroll, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598 U.S.A. William E. Cooper, Harvard University, William James Hall, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, U.s.A. Current address: Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, U.S.A. Kristina Damon, Harvard University, William James Hall, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, U.S.A. Susan F. Ehrlich, Advanced System Laboratory, Wang Laboratories, Lowell, Massachusetts 01851, U.S.A. Donald R. Gentner, Department of Psychology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, U.S.A. Jonathan T. Grudin, MRC Applied Psychology Unit, CB2 2EF, Cambridge, England Serge Larochelle, Institute for Perception Research, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands Gordon D. Logan, Department of Psychology, Erindale College, University of Toronto, Mississauga, Ontario L5L lc6, Canada John Long, Ergonomics Unit, University College London, London WCIH OAP, England Robert L. Mack, IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York, 10598, U.S.A.
xii Contributors Kevin G. Munhall, Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A IBl, Canada Ian Nimmo-Smith, MRC Applied Psychology Unit, Cambridge, England Donald A. Norman, Department of Psychology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, U.S.A. David J. Ostry, Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A IBl, Canada David E. Rumelhart, Department of Psychology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, U.S.A. Andy Whitefield, Ergonomic Unit, University College London, London WCLH OAP, England Hisao Yamada, Department of Information Science, Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113, Japan