ABC versus QWERTZ: interference from mismatching sequences of letters in the alphabet and on the keyboard

Letters have a position in the alphabet and they have a position on standard personal computer keyboards. The present study explored the consequences of compatibility between spatial codes representing letter position in the alphabet and on the keyboard. In Experiment 1, participants responded faster to letter dyads in an alphabetic order judgment task, when the letters' alphabetical order matched their left to right order on the keyboard. In Experiment 2, compatible dyads were typed more quickly than incompatible dyads. Finally, in Experiments 3 and 4, letter dyads with compatible alphabetical and keyboard sequences of letters were more preferred than dyads with incompatible orders. Together, these results suggest that the perception of letters concurrently activates 2 representations of ordinal sequences. Compatibility between these representations enhances performance as well as affective evaluations. Limitations of this alphabet-keyboard compatibility effect as well as implications for the development of formal typing courses and computer keyboard design are discussed.