EXPRESS: Keyboard Layout Facilitates Anagram Solving: Evidence for Embodied Effects of Typewriting

Motor experience related to writing influences reading performance, from letter recognition to word recognition. In our study, we tested the hypothesis that knowledge of the keyboard layout associated to typing promotes the retrieval of the order of the sequence of letters composing a word. We ran an online experiment with 100 adults. Two tasks were designed: anagram solution (main task) and pseudoletter identification (control task). The visual presentation of the letters was either congruent or incongruent with the keyboard layout. Results indicate that anagrams were solved faster in the congruent than in the incongruent condition, while the congruency with the keyboard layout had no effect in the pseudoletter identification task. These results suggest that keyboard practice could play a role in the retrieval of orthographic information.