News and journalism
Ready, Set, Type! Touch Typists Are Faster, But Not By Much
Gordon D. Logan et al., Association for Psychological Science, summary of Logan, Ulrich and Lindsey (2016) in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 2016
Read the originalRead on October 16, 2026
- What it is
- The Association for Psychological Science's summary of a Vanderbilt University study that compared 24 standard (touch) typists with 24 nonstandard typists, with and without a visible keyboard. It reports words per minute and accuracy for each group.
- How much weight it carries
- The numbers come from a press summary, not the journal article, which we did not open. The summary quotes the researchers directly. The sample is small (48 people) and was tested in laboratory typing tasks, so it may not show how people type in everyday writing.
Facts taken from this source
- The Vanderbilt study recruited one group of 24 standard typists and a group of 24 nonstandard typists.
“One group of 24 typists self-identified as using the standard QWERTY keyboard finger map, while the group of 24 nonstandard typists said they used another, less conventional, technique.” (Summary paragraph)
- Standard typists were about 94 percent accurate in the Vanderbilt study, against about 83 percent for nonstandard typists.
“and more accurate (around 94% vs. 83% accuracy)” (Summary paragraph)
- In the same study, nonstandard typists averaged 65.63 words per minute.
“Overall, standard typists were faster (79.99 vs. 65.63 WPM), and more accurate (around 94% vs. 83% accuracy), compared to nonstandard typists.” (Summary paragraph)
- In the Vanderbilt study, standard (touch) typists averaged 79.99 words per minute.
“Overall, standard typists were faster (79.99 vs. 65.63 WPM), and more accurate (around 94% vs. 83% accuracy), compared to nonstandard typists.” (Summary paragraph)
- The Vanderbilt researchers concluded that nonstandard typists could type almost as quickly and accurately as touch typists, provided they could see the keyboard.
“nonstandard typists can type almost as quickly and accurately as touch typists as long as they can see the keyboard.” (Conclusion, quoted in the press summary)