Fact · Typing and writing speed
In a transcription study, self-taught typists reached performance levels comparable with touch typists, even when they used fewer fingers.
Checked against its source on October 16, 2026
In the source's own words
“The most surprising finding is that self-taught typists can achieve performance levels comparable with touch typists, even when using fewer fingers.”
How We Type: Movement Strategies and Performance in Everyday Typing, Anna Maria Feit et al., Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2016, Abstract.
Open the original (DOI 10.1145/2858036.2858233)- What it measures
- The study compared self-taught typists with those who had taken a touch typing course, measuring speed, gaze and finger movements in a transcription task.
- What it does not show
- A transcription task in a laboratory, which is not the same as composing text. Fewer fingers did not mean slower typing in this study, but the paper does not say that every self-taught typist reaches the same speed.