Encoding of text, manual movement planning, and eye-hand coordination during copytyping

Typing span and coordination of word viewing times with word typing times in copytyping were examined. In Experiment 1, typists copied passages of text while their eye movements were measured. Viewing location was determined during each eye fixation and was used to control the amount of usable visual information. Viewing constraints decreased interword saccade size when fewer than 7 character spaces of text were visible to the right of fixation and increased interkeypress times when fewer than 3 character spaces of text were visible. The eye-hand span amounted to 2.8 character spaces. Experiment 2 revealed increases in word typing times and word viewing times as biomechanic typing difficulty increased and word frequency decreased. These findings are consistent with a model of eye-hand coordination that postulates that eye-hand coordination involves central and peripheral processes.