Peer-reviewed research
Execution and pauses in writing narratives: processing time, cognitive effort and typing skill
R. A. Alves et al., International Journal of Psychology, 2008 · DOI 10.1080/00207590701398951
Read the originalRead on October 17, 2026
- What it is
- A laboratory study of undergraduates who wrote narratives while answering random probes. It compared writers with low and high typing skill, and measured how much cognitive effort the typing itself took.
- How much weight it carries
- Peer-reviewed. The sample is small and made up of university students, and the study looks at a single writing session. It shows the effort of typing at the moment of writing, not what training does over months.
Facts taken from this source
- In a 2008 study comparing writers with low and high typing skill, the cognitive demands of typing itself were greater for the low-skill group.
“The demands of execution were greater in the low than in the high typing skill group” (Abstract)
- In the same 2008 study, low typing skill had a detrimental effect on the quality of the text the writers produced.
“Nevertheless, low typing skill had a detrimental impact on text quality” (Abstract)