Peer-reviewed research

Writing in a Digital World: Self-Correction While Typing in Younger and Older Adults

Yoram M. Kalman et al., International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2015 · DOI 10.3390/ijerph121012723

Read on October 17, 2026

What it is: A 2015 laboratory study that recorded every keystroke as 19 younger adults aged 21 to 31 and 19 older adults aged 65 to 83 wrote simple and complex texts on a laptop. It compared typing speed, editing and the share of time spent actually typing.
How much weight it carries: Peer-reviewed and open access. The sample is small, with 19 people in each age group, and the task was a single writing session, not a long-run typing test. The authors say the age differences may reflect age or cohort effects, so the study cannot separate the two.

Facts taken from this source

In the same 2015 study, older adults spent about 70 percent of their time on actual typing, while younger adults spent about half of their time typing.
“older adults spent about 70% of their time on actual typing, whereas younger adults spent only about half of their time typing” (Results)
In a 2015 writing study of 19 younger adults and 19 older adults, the speed of typing, measured as the time to type each key, was much higher in the younger group.
“Nineteen younger adults (age range 21–31, mean age 26.1) and 19 older adults (age range 65–83, mean age 72.1) participated in the study. ... As expected, the speed of typing, as calculated by the time to type each key, was much higher in the younger group.” (Abstract and Results)