Study gives new meaning to ‘let your fingers do the walking’
December 5, 2013 2:00 PM Subscribe
When you are typing away at your computer, you [apparently] don’t know what your fingers are really doing.
Here are some online resources to help your fingers better learn how to not know what they are doing.
~ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - + BACK
TAB Q W E R T Y U I O P { } |
CAPS A S D F G H J K L : " ENTER
SHIFT Z X C V B N M , . ? SHIFT
CTRL ALT SPACE ALT CTRL
Here are some online resources to help your fingers better learn how to not know what they are doing.
~ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 - + BACK
TAB Q W E R T Y U I O P { } |
CAPS A S D F G H J K L : " ENTER
SHIFT Z X C V B N M , . ? SHIFT
CTRL ALT SPACE ALT CTRL
When you are typing away at your computer, you [apparently] don’t know what your fingers are really doing.
This totally explains my posting history.
posted by entropicamericana at 2:05 PM on December 5, 2013 [21 favorites]
This totally explains my posting history.
posted by entropicamericana at 2:05 PM on December 5, 2013 [21 favorites]
http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/i-have-no-idea-what-im-doing-dog.jpg
posted by Foosnark at 2:06 PM on December 5, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by Foosnark at 2:06 PM on December 5, 2013 [4 favorites]
A quick and easy way to fill out that sheet is to type the alphabet on it first.
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:06 PM on December 5, 2013 [5 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:06 PM on December 5, 2013 [5 favorites]
This doesn't surprise me at all. I would probably have a hard time filling in a blank QWERTY keyboard, but if you were to give me a QWERTY keyboard with unlabeled keys and ask me to type on it, I'd probably do just fine with only minor exceptions for some of the less-used punctuation marks. In fact, if you asked me to fill in a blank keyboard I'd probably start by air-typing "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" and writing in the positions of the letters as I go. Then I would try something similar with punctuation.
My memory for keyboard layout is definitely not stored in the same way as the layout for, say, the things on my desk. I imagine that other activities that involve a lot of similar movement – playing the guitar, say – are similar. There's probably a reason for this; it may just be that whatever system it is that our brain uses for conscious recall is just not fast or reliable enough to do the job, and that we have another only semi-conscious system that we can switch over to for tasks that have been repeated enough times.
People have a tendency to call this sort of thing "muscle memory," though that's always seemed like a poor analogy to me. I wouldn't be surprised if some portion of the memory-recall process was encoded down in the brain stem or spinal column or even the peripheral nervous system or indeed the muscles themselves (in the form of accessory muscles that over time develop to become more efficient at the movements required) but most of it is surely up in the ol' cortex somewhere, just not in a place where we have full conscious access to it.
The conscious mind if just the tiny tip of a huge iceberg of mentation. We have a tendency to view ourselves and our minds as centering around the consciousness because that is by definition what we are most aware of, but really almost all of it is happening at some other level that we don't have direct control over or access to.
posted by Scientist at 2:08 PM on December 5, 2013 [2 favorites]
My memory for keyboard layout is definitely not stored in the same way as the layout for, say, the things on my desk. I imagine that other activities that involve a lot of similar movement – playing the guitar, say – are similar. There's probably a reason for this; it may just be that whatever system it is that our brain uses for conscious recall is just not fast or reliable enough to do the job, and that we have another only semi-conscious system that we can switch over to for tasks that have been repeated enough times.
People have a tendency to call this sort of thing "muscle memory," though that's always seemed like a poor analogy to me. I wouldn't be surprised if some portion of the memory-recall process was encoded down in the brain stem or spinal column or even the peripheral nervous system or indeed the muscles themselves (in the form of accessory muscles that over time develop to become more efficient at the movements required) but most of it is surely up in the ol' cortex somewhere, just not in a place where we have full conscious access to it.
The conscious mind if just the tiny tip of a huge iceberg of mentation. We have a tendency to view ourselves and our minds as centering around the consciousness because that is by definition what we are most aware of, but really almost all of it is happening at some other level that we don't have direct control over or access to.
posted by Scientist at 2:08 PM on December 5, 2013 [2 favorites]
99 wpm with 1 wrong word.. But they were mostly simple words to go on..
posted by k5.user at 2:09 PM on December 5, 2013
posted by k5.user at 2:09 PM on December 5, 2013
This is like paying attention to how you breathe. I had to type this comment while looking at the keys because reading this article has made me superaware of how I type and thus completely unable to do it naturally.
posted by troika at 2:09 PM on December 5, 2013 [5 favorites]
posted by troika at 2:09 PM on December 5, 2013 [5 favorites]
When I get smashed on pinot grigio, I write with one window set qwerty and another in dvorak. There's something about the tang of switching between them rapidly which is irresistable to me. And most likely a little deranged.
posted by oonh at 2:11 PM on December 5, 2013 [10 favorites]
posted by oonh at 2:11 PM on December 5, 2013 [10 favorites]
When you are typing commenting away at your computer, you [apparently] don’t know what your fingers are the posted article is really doing saying.
posted by benito.strauss at 2:14 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by benito.strauss at 2:14 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
I think part of it is that learning to touch type is about learning how to move your fingers in certain patterns relative to where you place them, rather than learning the physical layout of all of the keys on a single 2D plane. In the actual context of typing in QWERTY, it doesn't really matter that R is exactly two keys to the left of Y, just that you type it by moving your left index finger up one row. And since that kind of per-finger muscle knowledge doesn't automatically map very easily to a unified 2D layout, as other people have said the easiest way to figure it out is to just move your fingers in the way you know how to do for each letter.
posted by burnmp3s at 2:20 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by burnmp3s at 2:20 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
Muscle memory is a thing. I mentally forgot the root password on a box and after my mental state was calmer later the fingers just automagically typed the right password. So yea, the fingers can 'do a walk' the mind can't.
posted by rough ashlar at 2:22 PM on December 5, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by rough ashlar at 2:22 PM on December 5, 2013 [3 favorites]
Touch-typing is an incredibly useful skill when I'm interrupted while working on something important. As I turn to make eye contact and talk to whoever is bothering me, I continue to accurately type whatever I was working on at the same rate of speed as I had been before they arrived. People find this so unnerving for some reason they wrap up their business quickly and walk away.
I can only store a couple of good-sized paragraphs in my head in advance of typing them so I'm not sure what I'd do if they stuck around. Start typing gibberish, I guess.
posted by Blue Meanie at 2:23 PM on December 5, 2013 [14 favorites]
I can only store a couple of good-sized paragraphs in my head in advance of typing them so I'm not sure what I'd do if they stuck around. Start typing gibberish, I guess.
posted by Blue Meanie at 2:23 PM on December 5, 2013 [14 favorites]
This just proves that someone needs to write an "alphabet song" which names the keys on the keyboard in reading order.
I wonder whether the "hack" of imagining typing a panagrammic sentence occurred to many of the participants. It didn't occur to me, but I can tell you the order of all the alphabetic keys on the keyboard in proper order so I wouldn't need it. (I did miss "/" when scribbling it out on paper as an exercise, though)
From inside of myself, it sure seems clear that being able to type confidently has little to do with being able to give a row and column number where a specific key is, though. I mean, it's not like I even ask myself "which letters am I going to type in order to perform the next word"... (and also the way my typing goes to hell when I'm thinking too much about it)
posted by jepler at 2:24 PM on December 5, 2013
I wonder whether the "hack" of imagining typing a panagrammic sentence occurred to many of the participants. It didn't occur to me, but I can tell you the order of all the alphabetic keys on the keyboard in proper order so I wouldn't need it. (I did miss "/" when scribbling it out on paper as an exercise, though)
From inside of myself, it sure seems clear that being able to type confidently has little to do with being able to give a row and column number where a specific key is, though. I mean, it's not like I even ask myself "which letters am I going to type in order to perform the next word"... (and also the way my typing goes to hell when I'm thinking too much about it)
posted by jepler at 2:24 PM on December 5, 2013
When you are typing away at your computer, you [apparently] don’t know what your fingers are really doing....for very limited definitions of you and know.
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:24 PM on December 5, 2013
Seriously, every now and then my muscle memory forgets my password and I sit there in that paralyzed "shit what is my password shit" state familiar to every computer user. I think?
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 2:24 PM on December 5, 2013
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 2:24 PM on December 5, 2013
Seriously, every now and then my muscle memory forgets my password and I sit there in that paralyzed "shit what is my password shit" state familiar to every computer user. I think?
What is interesting to me is that sometimes muscle memory is connected to environmental factors in a way that I am not always aware of. For example, I can tell that on some websites, not only is the password stored somewhere down deep in my subconscious and I type it automagically, but part of accessing it has to do with patterns I'm familiar with: what computer I'm at, and also what the website looks like. I've had times where a website has changed its layout and it causes me to "forget" what the password is.
posted by SpacemanStix at 2:29 PM on December 5, 2013 [4 favorites]
What is interesting to me is that sometimes muscle memory is connected to environmental factors in a way that I am not always aware of. For example, I can tell that on some websites, not only is the password stored somewhere down deep in my subconscious and I type it automagically, but part of accessing it has to do with patterns I'm familiar with: what computer I'm at, and also what the website looks like. I've had times where a website has changed its layout and it causes me to "forget" what the password is.
posted by SpacemanStix at 2:29 PM on December 5, 2013 [4 favorites]
There is also a left-brain/right-brain interface to get the letters typed by the correct fingers on the correct side of the body. Some years back I had an experience of touch typing as I'm thinking of what to write, and, at one point, decided to change a word at the last moment, but it was
too late. One hand was typing letters from the old word, the other hand was typing letters from the new word. That stopped me in amazement.
posted by berrypete at 2:31 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
too late. One hand was typing letters from the old word, the other hand was typing letters from the new word. That stopped me in amazement.
posted by berrypete at 2:31 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
Huh, odd. I will sometimes challenge myself when cleaning my keyboard to take all the keys off then put them back correctly without looking. I'll admit that even though I'm a touch typist I usually have to cheat with a couple, and always have to cheat on the punctuation.
posted by Canageek at 2:33 PM on December 5, 2013
posted by Canageek at 2:33 PM on December 5, 2013
Was this ever seriously in doubt? From my conscious mind's point of view, I can type the sentence "I can type" a hell of a lot faster than I can type the keys I-space-c-a-n-space-t-y-p-e. I have always assumed this is the same for pretty much everybody whose typing skills are beyond hunt-and-peck?
posted by Flunkie at 2:34 PM on December 5, 2013
posted by Flunkie at 2:34 PM on December 5, 2013
When you are typing away at your computer, you [apparently] don’t know what your fingers are really doing.
So ture!
posted by IndigoJones at 2:39 PM on December 5, 2013 [2 favorites]
So ture!
posted by IndigoJones at 2:39 PM on December 5, 2013 [2 favorites]
an "alphabet song" which names the keys on the keyboard in reading order
Sadly, N and M break the rhyme scheme and the last line even without them has the wrong number of syllables:
qwerT
yuioP
asdfG
hjklZ
xcvB
N and M
posted by soelo at 2:40 PM on December 5, 2013 [2 favorites]
Sadly, N and M break the rhyme scheme and the last line even without them has the wrong number of syllables:
qwerT
yuioP
asdfG
hjklZ
xcvB
N and M
posted by soelo at 2:40 PM on December 5, 2013 [2 favorites]
The funny thing about this process of learning is that when the default context in which you've learned gets changed somehow (like if you accidentally put your hands down one key to the right), the feeling of discombobulation you get is very similar to how I imagine the garbage disposal must feel when it gets turned on while there's a bottle cap in the chamber. Vim is notable as a tool for magnifying this sensation a hundred-fold.
posted by invitapriore at 2:44 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by invitapriore at 2:44 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
I learned to type back when schools had typing classes so, like many of the older people here, could fill that QWERTY page by air typing. I'm curious if there was a difference among the skilled typists between those that learned old school style and those that are self taught.
I've always been amused at what my dyslexia will do when typing, though - I merely type with the incorrect hand. If the right hand was supposed to give me an "i", I'll get an "e" from the left instead.
posted by _paegan_ at 2:53 PM on December 5, 2013
I've always been amused at what my dyslexia will do when typing, though - I merely type with the incorrect hand. If the right hand was supposed to give me an "i", I'll get an "e" from the left instead.
posted by _paegan_ at 2:53 PM on December 5, 2013
I learned Morse Code back in the day when the U.S. Navy still thought it was using Morse Code (in 10 years I only set down to a single Morse session -- an early contact with British run Hong Kong. He was using a bug and I couldn't keep up).
Learning Morse means you need to somehow connect the dots and dashes in your ears to your fingers. After many months you no longer think about what you are hearing. Your fingers just hit the right keys. And at 20+ words/minute your fingers are two or three letters behind what's coming across the air.
No surprises in this article.
posted by jgaiser at 2:56 PM on December 5, 2013
Learning Morse means you need to somehow connect the dots and dashes in your ears to your fingers. After many months you no longer think about what you are hearing. Your fingers just hit the right keys. And at 20+ words/minute your fingers are two or three letters behind what's coming across the air.
No surprises in this article.
posted by jgaiser at 2:56 PM on December 5, 2013
I learned to type back when schools had typing classes
And we only took it because it seemed like an easy grade, like weight lifting for P.E.
And I distinctly remember sitting around talking about what a useless skill it was, "I mean really, of all the useless things you learn in school this has to be at the top of the list of things that you will never need again after this class".
posted by bongo_x at 3:02 PM on December 5, 2013 [2 favorites]
And we only took it because it seemed like an easy grade, like weight lifting for P.E.
And I distinctly remember sitting around talking about what a useless skill it was, "I mean really, of all the useless things you learn in school this has to be at the top of the list of things that you will never need again after this class".
posted by bongo_x at 3:02 PM on December 5, 2013 [2 favorites]
I wonder how the rise of touch-screen mobile devices affects this-- you can't touch type on a mobile keyboard and so have to stare at the labeled keys all the time. Are people who grew up with iPads before real keyboards better at labeling the keys?
posted by Pyry at 3:13 PM on December 5, 2013
posted by Pyry at 3:13 PM on December 5, 2013
Pyry, I am a super fast touch typer on a normal keyboard and I do two-thumbed typing on my iPhone's touch screen, and get just as many comments of "holy shit you type fast" on the iPhone as I do typing on a keyboard. And even though I am indeed "looking" at the keyboard when I type on my phone, I'm not consciously doing so, since it is still muscle memory of roughly where the keys are (though I have to be looking at the screen to visually reference where the keyboard is). I've noticed I have a hard time doing hunt-and-peck if I have to type something in one-thumbed for some reason, so I would think kids growing up on soft keyboards would end up similarly.
posted by olinerd at 3:20 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by olinerd at 3:20 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
When you are typing away at your computer, you [apparently] don’t know what your fingers are really doing.
The article is pretty interesting. One of the really weird quirks of typing I've noticed is that I can tell that I've f'ed up a letter and will backspace to correct it automatically, without even looking at the screen. I'm not sure I would be able to name the mistaken letter, though. So even if it never resolves to a fully "conscious" impression, there's clearly still some proprioceptive feedback that's part of typing.
posted by en forme de poire at 3:22 PM on December 5, 2013 [2 favorites]
The article is pretty interesting. One of the really weird quirks of typing I've noticed is that I can tell that I've f'ed up a letter and will backspace to correct it automatically, without even looking at the screen. I'm not sure I would be able to name the mistaken letter, though. So even if it never resolves to a fully "conscious" impression, there's clearly still some proprioceptive feedback that's part of typing.
posted by en forme de poire at 3:22 PM on December 5, 2013 [2 favorites]
Twenty-two years ago this spring, a good friend of mine sustained a bad head injury in a bicycling accident. He was in a coma for 11 days and when he did wake up, he was extremely aphasic (expressive) and hemiplegic. (Those were the symptoms we could actually see.)
Eventually, he got back most of his brain and motor functions, but he had memory issues for a long long time. Part of what he'd lost was ALL the numbers in his life (and there are a lot of them): all phone numbers, all addresses, social security number, passwords, lock combinations, frequencies, channels, callsigns, component IDs -- everything.
Soon after he got home, he needed money and went to his bank. Problem: he could not conjure up his PIN. It just wasn't in there. But he decided to go through the motions and see what would happen.
What happened was this: His fingers remembered the PIN. He did not know what they had typed, but they had typed the correct code. Literally going through the motions is what did it; after attentively repeating the performance he figured out what the PIN was, and re-memorized it.* As he put it, his fingers had to remind his brain.
* Yes, he wrote it down first.
posted by Herodios at 3:27 PM on December 5, 2013 [14 favorites]
Seriously, every now and then my muscle memory forgets my password and I sit there in that paralyzed "shit what is my password shit" state familiar to every computer user. I think?
This happened to me so bad in Japan, when I had finally found an ATM that worked with my card in suburban Kyoto, and the bloody number pad was not a pad but a row of numbers along the top like a keyboard!
I pressed one button, then stared at it blankly. I couldn't remember my pin, that I had had for years! My memory of it was obviously almost wholly based in muscle memory of typing it into a grid-like keypad. I was starting to get worried, trying to mentally visualise a proper keypad and making ghost movements with my fingers. The thing was, I think the movements of my fingers, but was unable to mentally locate where those movements began on the keypad. So I had the pattern, but not the numbers.
Three tries and I locked my card. No keypad, what a travesty!
posted by smoke at 3:31 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
This happened to me so bad in Japan, when I had finally found an ATM that worked with my card in suburban Kyoto, and the bloody number pad was not a pad but a row of numbers along the top like a keyboard!
I pressed one button, then stared at it blankly. I couldn't remember my pin, that I had had for years! My memory of it was obviously almost wholly based in muscle memory of typing it into a grid-like keypad. I was starting to get worried, trying to mentally visualise a proper keypad and making ghost movements with my fingers. The thing was, I think the movements of my fingers, but was unable to mentally locate where those movements began on the keypad. So I had the pattern, but not the numbers.
Three tries and I locked my card. No keypad, what a travesty!
posted by smoke at 3:31 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
For addictive testing of your own typing skills/speed, there's nothing better than Typeracer. (No, you've played 1,500 games on this since 2008.)
posted by Phire at 3:40 PM on December 5, 2013 [6 favorites]
posted by Phire at 3:40 PM on December 5, 2013 [6 favorites]
Kwerty-you-eye-ope
Assduff Goodge-ikle
Zicksuvbonhomme
Say the magic words, click your heels three times, and your typing skills will be totally unchanged!
posted by swr at 3:42 PM on December 5, 2013
Assduff Goodge-ikle
Zicksuvbonhomme
Say the magic words, click your heels three times, and your typing skills will be totally unchanged!
posted by swr at 3:42 PM on December 5, 2013
Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. At least not when they are typing" And they opened up his website and typed nasty comments. The people stood watching, and the trolls even sneered at him.
posted by Hairy Lobster at 4:02 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Hairy Lobster at 4:02 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
The older I get the more my fingers forget. Soon spellcheck will be writing all my comments.
posted by Anitanola at 4:03 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Anitanola at 4:03 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
This just proves that someone needs to write an "alphabet song" which names the keys on the keyboard in reading order.
♫ Q and W, E R T ♫
♫ Y U I, O and P ♫
♫ A S D F, G H J ♫
♫ Keyboard Learned the easy way ♫
♫ Z X C V B N M ♫
♫ My typing song is at an end ♫
- To the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star or A, B, C.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:07 PM on December 5, 2013 [17 favorites]
♫ Q and W, E R T ♫
♫ Y U I, O and P ♫
♫ A S D F, G H J ♫
♫ Keyboard Learned the easy way ♫
♫ Z X C V B N M ♫
♫ My typing song is at an end ♫
- To the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star or A, B, C.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:07 PM on December 5, 2013 [17 favorites]
I question this studies methodology. Cold I can have trouble tracking down the tilde or other not incredibly consistent symbol and other than the core qwerty letters there has over time been quite significant variation. I infrequently go full on "touch type" but when I have had several pages to "input" I find the right posture and focus and my fingers find the keys quite well **BUT I still don't "know" where the keys are. If I have to look for one when the attention breaks it's a hunt, even with several paragraphs where it appeared.
posted by sammyo at 4:28 PM on December 5, 2013
posted by sammyo at 4:28 PM on December 5, 2013
Not to toot my own horn, but I have a feeling that if I were given a blank keyboard to fill in the keys I would be able to do so mostly because of playing FPS games. I started off using the arrow keys, but as soon as more advanced games hit I was all about WASD, then it's easy from there:
Q, E, and R are right there (Q for quick switch, E for use, R for reload), T was for spraying in Half-Life multiplayer+mods, Y for public chat, U for team chat, I, O, and P weren't used very often from what I remember. F was flashlight or some other ability, G and H were dependent on the game or not used at all, IJKL were basically the opposite of WASD. N and M were typically change class and change team, respectively, but that only came into play for DoD and TFC, and maybe some other mods like FLF (if I remember correctly). I can't remember what I used ZXCV and B for, although B was probably nightvision, and V was "drop ammo" in DoD and Firearms. For Firearms I typically had Z X and C for certain abilities like dropping an artillery flag or opening up some other menu. However, despite not remembering what a lot of the keys were USED for, I am certain I can name off all the keys on the keyboard.
But I can also understand why other people wouldn't have that sort of knowledge to know the keyboard. Other program keyboard shortcuts would also be useful in remembering the keys on the keyboard. When I was good at ProTools I almost exclusively used the keyboard for things I needed to do, and they typically were very deliberate things.
Anyway, I can still understand why someone wouldn't remember where every key was on the keyboard. Typing feels largely like an automatic function nowadays. I mostly was taught to type with home row and to never look at the keyboard while typing, but I always went against it and just put my fingers down where they felt comfortable and I always got consistently better scores at typing throughout grade school. I've tried to type in home row and it destroys me. I've thought about giving Dvorak a shot but I feel like the keyboard as it is is so ingrained into me that it'd really mess me up for a long time.
posted by gucci mane at 4:35 PM on December 5, 2013
Q, E, and R are right there (Q for quick switch, E for use, R for reload), T was for spraying in Half-Life multiplayer+mods, Y for public chat, U for team chat, I, O, and P weren't used very often from what I remember. F was flashlight or some other ability, G and H were dependent on the game or not used at all, IJKL were basically the opposite of WASD. N and M were typically change class and change team, respectively, but that only came into play for DoD and TFC, and maybe some other mods like FLF (if I remember correctly). I can't remember what I used ZXCV and B for, although B was probably nightvision, and V was "drop ammo" in DoD and Firearms. For Firearms I typically had Z X and C for certain abilities like dropping an artillery flag or opening up some other menu. However, despite not remembering what a lot of the keys were USED for, I am certain I can name off all the keys on the keyboard.
But I can also understand why other people wouldn't have that sort of knowledge to know the keyboard. Other program keyboard shortcuts would also be useful in remembering the keys on the keyboard. When I was good at ProTools I almost exclusively used the keyboard for things I needed to do, and they typically were very deliberate things.
Anyway, I can still understand why someone wouldn't remember where every key was on the keyboard. Typing feels largely like an automatic function nowadays. I mostly was taught to type with home row and to never look at the keyboard while typing, but I always went against it and just put my fingers down where they felt comfortable and I always got consistently better scores at typing throughout grade school. I've tried to type in home row and it destroys me. I've thought about giving Dvorak a shot but I feel like the keyboard as it is is so ingrained into me that it'd really mess me up for a long time.
posted by gucci mane at 4:35 PM on December 5, 2013
So it wasn't my fault when I flipped the bird to my Dad?
posted by jonp72 at 4:41 PM on December 5, 2013
posted by jonp72 at 4:41 PM on December 5, 2013
This is no surprise. When I play the piano I don't know what notes I am playing. If you asked me I might be able to figure it out, but maybe not. I can play that Chopin étude in the dark, though. It would be much worse if I thought of the notes. There is no right end of the telescope through which to look at life. Sometimes I feel sorry for psychologists.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 5:07 PM on December 5, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 5:07 PM on December 5, 2013 [3 favorites]
Tell you what, I sure as shit know where WASD are. Thanks, Quake!
posted by nathancaswell at 5:21 PM on December 5, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by nathancaswell at 5:21 PM on December 5, 2013 [3 favorites]
I'm not surprised. My critique is that this article doesn't go far enough to explain or speculate on why procedural memory works when typists have no explicit memory of the key locations. Which neural networks and areas of the brain are involved? Why is explicit memory of the key locations not necessary, and what would it look like to a neurologist if top-down working memory processes had to rely on an encoded visual memory of the key locations?
If we can type on computers for years without being able to reproduce key locations from explicit memory, why is that, from a neurological perspective? (I'm wondering where in the brain the information "this is what a keyboard layout looks like" is stored, as compared to the information "when you move your index finger this distance, you will see this character output". What areas of the brain and types of memory are involved?) Here's a snippet of information from a search on "procedural memory action sequences" that led to memory-key.com:
I found this fascinating paper from 2010 that explains more about the typing phenomenon: "In typewriting, the paradox of skill is resolved by proposing a hierarchical control system with two nested feedback loops: an inner loop that translates words into keystrokes and controls the movements of the fingers and hands, and an outer loop that connects to language generation and comprehension processes and provides the inner loop with a string of words to type."
Refer to the General Discussion toward the end for all of your nerdy explanatory needs about how and why this phenomenon occurs. It looks like I've answered most of my own questions. I learned something tonight. Thank you, MetaFilter!
posted by quiet earth at 6:54 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
If we can type on computers for years without being able to reproduce key locations from explicit memory, why is that, from a neurological perspective? (I'm wondering where in the brain the information "this is what a keyboard layout looks like" is stored, as compared to the information "when you move your index finger this distance, you will see this character output". What areas of the brain and types of memory are involved?) Here's a snippet of information from a search on "procedural memory action sequences" that led to memory-key.com:
As we acquire a skill, the declarative information we learn (‘use your little finger on the “a”; the “s” is next to the “a”; the “d” is next to the “s” ’ etc) is transformed into so-called “procedural rules”, which are completely internalized, beyond our conscious manipulation. This greatly reduces the involvement of working memory, and protects the skill from the types of interference that other types of memory are vulnerable to.Why would we even need to consciously memorize the key positions unless we're gamers? Maybe proprioception is simply faster. Maybe, as elaborated on in a great article I'll link to below, the touch-feedback information loop doesn't need to interact with the explicit knowledge information loop.
I found this fascinating paper from 2010 that explains more about the typing phenomenon: "In typewriting, the paradox of skill is resolved by proposing a hierarchical control system with two nested feedback loops: an inner loop that translates words into keystrokes and controls the movements of the fingers and hands, and an outer loop that connects to language generation and comprehension processes and provides the inner loop with a string of words to type."
Refer to the General Discussion toward the end for all of your nerdy explanatory needs about how and why this phenomenon occurs. It looks like I've answered most of my own questions. I learned something tonight. Thank you, MetaFilter!
posted by quiet earth at 6:54 PM on December 5, 2013 [1 favorite]
en forme de poire: "One of the really weird quirks of typing I've noticed is that I can tell that I've f'ed up a letter and will backspace to correct it automatically, without even looking at the screen. "
I do that a LOT. In fact, for me, one of the key things about being able to type quickly is the ability to realize that you fucked up and quickly correct via backspace. It's fascinating how that speed of mental process works.
Frankly I'm surprised that the claim of "skilled typists" can't write the names of the letters down. At first I thought this was going to be about how we don't mentally process our keystrokes we just "do", and I agreed, then I read the article and was like, how the hell can you not know?
I guess considering I've been using a keyboard (via "hunt" and peck (though I knew where they were, so it wasn't really hunting)) since about 5 or 6 years old, and had formal training in high school for a semester or whatever (which I hated at first, but without it, I think I'd probably be much slower... though my roommate still does two fingered typing and she's amazingly fast at it, like... sure, not 60 wpm, but fast enough that she's hitting the keys about as fast as I am with my full hands on the board).
Hell, how do these people ever put their keyboards together after cleaning... OH. MY. GOD.
These people have filthy keyboards!
posted by symbioid at 7:37 PM on December 5, 2013 [2 favorites]
I do that a LOT. In fact, for me, one of the key things about being able to type quickly is the ability to realize that you fucked up and quickly correct via backspace. It's fascinating how that speed of mental process works.
Frankly I'm surprised that the claim of "skilled typists" can't write the names of the letters down. At first I thought this was going to be about how we don't mentally process our keystrokes we just "do", and I agreed, then I read the article and was like, how the hell can you not know?
I guess considering I've been using a keyboard (via "hunt" and peck (though I knew where they were, so it wasn't really hunting)) since about 5 or 6 years old, and had formal training in high school for a semester or whatever (which I hated at first, but without it, I think I'd probably be much slower... though my roommate still does two fingered typing and she's amazingly fast at it, like... sure, not 60 wpm, but fast enough that she's hitting the keys about as fast as I am with my full hands on the board).
Hell, how do these people ever put their keyboards together after cleaning... OH. MY. GOD.
These people have filthy keyboards!
posted by symbioid at 7:37 PM on December 5, 2013 [2 favorites]
And this is what I like to think I look like when I type.
posted by symbioid at 7:39 PM on December 5, 2013
posted by symbioid at 7:39 PM on December 5, 2013
I think this kind of thing applies to any skill that's super time sensitive and reflex-driven, like playing videogames, or driving, juggling, or hitting a baseball. I can juggle three balls, but I'll be damned if I can explain how I do it. I know I don't consciously think about it or have any conscious knowledge of what my hands are doing or where the balls are from moment to moment.
posted by empath at 8:26 PM on December 5, 2013
posted by empath at 8:26 PM on December 5, 2013
my roommate still does two fingered typing and she's amazingly fast at it, like... sure, not 60 wpm, but fast enough that she's hitting the keys about as fast as I am with my full hands on the board.
The father of another old friend of mine was a newspaper photographer, writer, and editor. He typed for a living for decades but had never learned to touch-type. He worked at the kitchen table on an 'upright' Underwood #5 manual.
Night after night, he would ball his hands up into fists, point his middle fingers, and pound away. Forty, forty-five words per minute, easily, by essentially punching the machine with his fists.
The wooden table-top was scalloped, as if it had been repeatedly struck with ball-peen hammers.
posted by Herodios at 9:22 PM on December 5, 2013 [3 favorites]
The father of another old friend of mine was a newspaper photographer, writer, and editor. He typed for a living for decades but had never learned to touch-type. He worked at the kitchen table on an 'upright' Underwood #5 manual.
Night after night, he would ball his hands up into fists, point his middle fingers, and pound away. Forty, forty-five words per minute, easily, by essentially punching the machine with his fists.
The wooden table-top was scalloped, as if it had been repeatedly struck with ball-peen hammers.
posted by Herodios at 9:22 PM on December 5, 2013 [3 favorites]
Well this is all very interesting. I'm working in an office doing data entry of email addresses, there are some really fast typists but only one who types faster than me. My last typing test clocked at 80WPM but that was on a crappy, unfamiliar keyboard, the first time I ever touched it. I have tested up to 100WPM, but that was a long time ago.
So we spend a lot of time talking about typing. I have been scoffing at the person next to me, she hits the @ sign by holding down the shift key with her thumb and her index finger on the @. I told her I used my pinky on the shift key and 3rd finger on the @, like you're supposed to. She said she uses the ten-key pad for all numbers. I said I use the top row like you're supposed to. She said she learned to type on a laptop computer. I said I learned to type on a big Olivetti manual typewriter that didn't even have a 1 key. She said "what?! How do you type a 1?" I said you use the L key. I told her I can still remember all those phrases like The Quick Brown Fox. She said, "huh?" I said, the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. Sphinx of black quartz, hear my vow. Pack my box with twelve dozen liquor jugs. You know, I used to be able to type a full page of "A Doll's House" in screenplay format, from memory. It was a demo from the Scriptor manual, I typed it hundreds of times.
NORA
It hurts me very much to say it,
Torvald, you've always been so
kind to me. But there's nothing
I can do about it. I don't love
you any more.
But that's all ancient history. Lately I have developed some incredible speed. Just due to sheer repetition, I can type domains like yahoo.com and gmail.com in a fraction of a second. I'm not typing letters, I'm typing chords. Unfortunately I can also type hyaoo.com and gamil.com in a flash, but I can only backspace one at a time.
The other day I got laid off, so I decided to do a work slowdown and do only the minimum typing required to meet my quota. I decided I would not type so speedily. I would type loudly and rhythmically, one character at a time. I actually typed faster.
posted by charlie don't surf at 9:29 PM on December 5, 2013 [7 favorites]
So we spend a lot of time talking about typing. I have been scoffing at the person next to me, she hits the @ sign by holding down the shift key with her thumb and her index finger on the @. I told her I used my pinky on the shift key and 3rd finger on the @, like you're supposed to. She said she uses the ten-key pad for all numbers. I said I use the top row like you're supposed to. She said she learned to type on a laptop computer. I said I learned to type on a big Olivetti manual typewriter that didn't even have a 1 key. She said "what?! How do you type a 1?" I said you use the L key. I told her I can still remember all those phrases like The Quick Brown Fox. She said, "huh?" I said, the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. Sphinx of black quartz, hear my vow. Pack my box with twelve dozen liquor jugs. You know, I used to be able to type a full page of "A Doll's House" in screenplay format, from memory. It was a demo from the Scriptor manual, I typed it hundreds of times.
NORA
It hurts me very much to say it,
Torvald, you've always been so
kind to me. But there's nothing
I can do about it. I don't love
you any more.
But that's all ancient history. Lately I have developed some incredible speed. Just due to sheer repetition, I can type domains like yahoo.com and gmail.com in a fraction of a second. I'm not typing letters, I'm typing chords. Unfortunately I can also type hyaoo.com and gamil.com in a flash, but I can only backspace one at a time.
The other day I got laid off, so I decided to do a work slowdown and do only the minimum typing required to meet my quota. I decided I would not type so speedily. I would type loudly and rhythmically, one character at a time. I actually typed faster.
posted by charlie don't surf at 9:29 PM on December 5, 2013 [7 favorites]
Sweet, 104 wpm, sitting sideways on my chair after staring at a computer all day.
posted by limeonaire at 9:44 PM on December 5, 2013
posted by limeonaire at 9:44 PM on December 5, 2013
Ooo, 110 wpm! OK, I'm done for the night.
posted by limeonaire at 9:58 PM on December 5, 2013
posted by limeonaire at 9:58 PM on December 5, 2013
Hmm... I'm wondering if there's a good way to break through the plateau I seem to have hit around ~110 wpm. I see Typeracer scores of around 160 and I just can't even fathom how that's possible. Especially without getting RSI.
posted by en forme de poire at 10:01 PM on December 5, 2013
posted by en forme de poire at 10:01 PM on December 5, 2013
This ius me, niot eben lookinfg at the keyboagd while typiung with tfwo finfwda
posted by not_on_display at 11:08 PM on December 5, 2013
posted by not_on_display at 11:08 PM on December 5, 2013
I type weirdly. I couldn't ever fully commit to home row, so mostly my pointer and middle fingers are all over the keyboard. I still regularly hit 80+ WPM without thinking about it.
In the last couple of years at work they've switched us to iPads, meaning I sometimes type all day on a touchscreen keyboard. The hardest thing was controlling that automatic backspace impulse when I know I've mistyped something--backspace seems painfully slow on the touchscreen, and autocorrect mostly catches my typos. It's gotten to the point where not only to I constantly astonish my customers with my speed on the thing, but I can push my typing speed even faster by not typing exactly the word I'm typing. The autocorrect changes 'ued' to 'used' 99% of the time, so why even bother hitting that s? It's done weird things to the part of my subconscious that controls my text output.
posted by sleeping bear at 11:43 PM on December 5, 2013
In the last couple of years at work they've switched us to iPads, meaning I sometimes type all day on a touchscreen keyboard. The hardest thing was controlling that automatic backspace impulse when I know I've mistyped something--backspace seems painfully slow on the touchscreen, and autocorrect mostly catches my typos. It's gotten to the point where not only to I constantly astonish my customers with my speed on the thing, but I can push my typing speed even faster by not typing exactly the word I'm typing. The autocorrect changes 'ued' to 'used' 99% of the time, so why even bother hitting that s? It's done weird things to the part of my subconscious that controls my text output.
posted by sleeping bear at 11:43 PM on December 5, 2013
I've been feeling extra smug about having finally learnt to properly touch type, no looking at all, while writing up my PhD thesis a few years back now that I've moved to Germany where what's written on my work keyboard doesn't always match what happens when I hit the keys. Most of them are the same but a few letters are moved and all the punctuation and stuff is different (plus there are things like umlauts I don't use). But apparently my fingers know where all the tricky stuff like / and " and y is regardless. Then, to make it more complicated, I often type at home on a keyboard from New Zealand which is laid out correctly but also often type on a keyboard from Ireland which has a few weird differences (different again from the German one) so actually looking at the keys is generally the wrong thing to do.
I don't know how to find the @ key but my fingies do and I'm so glad they learned this for me.
posted by shelleycat at 11:13 AM on December 6, 2013
I don't know how to find the @ key but my fingies do and I'm so glad they learned this for me.
posted by shelleycat at 11:13 AM on December 6, 2013
All I know is that if you're playing the fiddle and you start thinking about what you're doing, you're probably gonna screw up pretty soon.
posted by salix at 12:33 AM on December 8, 2013
posted by salix at 12:33 AM on December 8, 2013
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When I'm walking I'm not thinking about individual muscles in my legs.
Those things are handled by low level circuits in my brain's motor control center, and in my medulla, and in my spinal column. There's a strong layering in the vertebrate brain.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 2:05 PM on December 5, 2013 [4 favorites]