What 100 Years of Typing Research Can Tell Us

Abstract

The need of typewriting skill is ever increasing in our lives. The prevalence of personal computers and mobile devices has transformed the way people communicate with each other. Although many different types of human interfaces have been introduced over the decades, the dominant form of computer interface remains to be that of typing on a keyboard. [...] Whilst typing has become one of the common everyday skills within the last two decades, experimental psychologists have been studying it as a research subject for more than a hundred years. [...] Apart from its practical importance in the modern lifestyle, the act of typing involves the right amount of complexity as well as well-defined and measurable actions. These features of typewriting makes it an ideal testbed to gain our understanding of the control and acquisition of complex skills. This review article first presents a brief overview of the classic studies of typewriting skill in the early 20th century, discusses the developments that took place after the mid-20th century, and concludes with the current status and issues that remain for future investigations in the 21st century.