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Updated: Feb 14, 2026
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Irrelevant Stimuli and Action Control: Analyzing the Influence of Ignored Stimuli via the Distractor-Response Binding Paradigm
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The Typability Index: A tool for measuring and controlling for typing difficulty in text stimuli
Emily A Williams1, Matthew Warburton2,3, Martin Krzywinski4
1School of Psychology, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. emily.e.a.williams@gmail.com.
Behavior Research Methods
|February 12, 2026
Summary
We developed a Typability Index to predict text typing difficulty, improving accuracy in typing tests. This model enhances typing performance evaluation by accounting for text characteristics, ensuring fairer skill comparisons.
Area of Science:
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Psychology
- Computational Linguistics
Background:
- Typing proficiency tests are vital for recruitment and research.
- Text difficulty, or 'typability', introduces performance variability unrelated to user skill.
- Controlling for text difficulty is essential for valid typing assessments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a robust model for predicting text typability.
- To improve the accuracy and fairness of typing proficiency tests.
- To provide a tool for researchers and assessors to measure text difficulty.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the 136 Million Keystrokes Dataset (168,000+ participants).
- Employed random forest regression to identify key predictors of typability.
- Selected eight predictors from 30 variables, including lowercase proportion, word frequency, and syllables per word.
Main Results:
- The Typability Index explained 68-88% of the variance in typing performance.
- Outperformed a previous model (Bell, 1949) which explained only 34% of the variance.
- Validated on independent datasets, demonstrating strong predictive power.
Conclusions:
- The Typability Index offers a significant advancement in quantifying text difficulty.
- Facilitates more accurate and equitable typing research and job recruitment.
- A web-based tool is introduced to promote wider adoption and application.
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