Typing is writing: Linguistic properties modulate typing execution.

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Cognitive Psychology
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Typing is the dominant writing method, yet psycholinguistic research on typing is limited.
• Typing research remains largely separate from handwriting research, despite their similarities.
• Understanding the cognitive processes behind typing is crucial for optimizing human-computer interaction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of psycholinguistic variables on typing performance.
• To bridge the gap between typing and handwriting research by examining shared cognitive mechanisms.
• To develop a comprehensive framework for typed language production.

Main Methods:

• A writing-to-dictation task was employed to assess typing.
• Performance metrics included response accuracy, onset latencies, and interkeystroke intervals (IKIs).
• Psycholinguistic variables at word, syllable, and letter levels were analyzed.

Main Results:

• Lexical frequency positively influenced response latencies and accuracy.
• Bigram frequency accelerated IKIs, indicating faster execution.
• Sound-spelling consistency improved latencies but inhibited IKIs; IKIs were longer at syllable boundaries.

Conclusions:

• Typing performance is modulated by both lexical and sublexical psycholinguistic factors.
• Findings support a model of typed production integrating spelling and execution theories.
• An intermediate hierarchical stage, potentially a graphemic buffer, is proposed for typing.