What skilled typists don't know about the QWERTY keyboard

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Motor Skill Acquisition

Background:

• Skilled performance is often associated with implicit knowledge, while explicit knowledge is linked to novice performance.
• Understanding the explicit knowledge of keyboard layouts is crucial for optimizing typing efficiency and training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the explicit knowledge of key locations among skilled typists on the QWERTY keyboard.
• To determine if learning a new keyboard layout (Dvorak) improves explicit knowledge of key locations.
• To compare explicit knowledge between novice and skilled typists.

Main Methods:

• Four experiments were conducted using free recall, cued recall, and recognition tasks.
• Skilled typists' explicit knowledge of QWERTY key locations was assessed.
• Skilled typists underwent a Dvorak touch-typing tutorial and were subsequently tested on both QWERTY and Dvorak key locations.

Main Results:

• Skilled typists demonstrated incomplete and inaccurate explicit knowledge of QWERTY keyboard key locations.
• No significant difference in explicit knowledge was found between the Dvorak and QWERTY keyboards after training.
• Explicit knowledge of key locations was minimal, irrespective of typing experience (2 hours to 12 years).

Conclusions:

• Explicit knowledge of keyboard key locations is surprisingly limited, even among experts.
• The acquisition of implicit knowledge may overshadow the development of explicit knowledge during skill learning.
• Typing expertise does not necessarily translate to conscious awareness of key positions.