TYPIST: A Theory of Performance in Skilled Typing

TYPIST is a TheorY of Performance In Skilled Typing built within the framework of the Model Human Processor (MHP; Card, Moran, & Newell, 1983). As such, it can be used to make quantitative predictions of performance on typing tasks and can be integrated with other MHP-based models of performance. In this article, I present the theory and explain the source of each theoretical assumption (MHP, typing task analysis, or empirical typing data). I then demonstrate different ways to use TYPIST by applying it to six transcription typing tasks. Finally, I summarize its application to many more typing tasks that display robust behavioral phenomena identified by Salthouse (1986).

[1]  H. Pashler Overlapping Mental Operations in Serial Performance with Preview , 1994, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[2]  R Schweickert,et al.  Critical-path scheduling of mental processes in a dual task. , 1980, Science.

[3]  Michael E. Atwood,et al.  Project Ernestine: Validating a GOMS Analysis for Predicting and Explaining Real-World Task Performance , 1993, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[4]  D. Gentner Evidence Against a Central Control Model of Timing in Typing. , 1982 .

[5]  Norris D. McWhirter,et al.  Guinness Book Of Records , 1971 .

[6]  Gordon D. Logan,et al.  Time, Information, and the Various Spans in Typewriting , 1983 .

[7]  L. H. Shaffer,et al.  Coding Factors in Transcription , 1971 .

[8]  A. T. Welford,et al.  The fundamentals of skill , 1968 .

[9]  W A Hillix,et al.  Data Processing in Typing: Typing Rate as a Function of Kind of Material and Amount Exposed1 , 1965, Human factors.

[10]  ed. Et al. Woolf,et al.  Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary , 1973 .

[11]  L. Shaffer,et al.  The basis of transcription skill , 1970 .

[12]  Bonnie E John Contributions to Engineering Models of Human-Computer Interaction. Volume 1. , 1988 .

[13]  T. Salthouse Anticipatory processing in transcription typing. , 1985, The Journal of applied psychology.

[14]  T. Salthouse Perceptual, cognitive, and motoric aspects of transcription typing. , 1986, Psychological bulletin.

[15]  Harold Pashler,et al.  Comment on McLeod and Hume, Overlapping Mental Operations in Serial Performance with Preview: Typing , 1994 .

[16]  Timothy A. Salthouse,et al.  The Skill of Typing. , 1984 .

[17]  Ernst Z. Rothkopf,et al.  Copying span as a measure of the information burden in written language , 1980 .

[18]  James L. McClelland On the time relations of mental processes: An examination of systems of processes in cascade. , 1979 .

[19]  Richard G. Jones,et al.  A model for Subjective Grouping in Typewriting † , 1970 .

[20]  Bonnie E. John Extensions of GOMS analyses to expert performance requiring perception of dynamic visual and auditory information , 1990, CHI '90.

[21]  Peter McLeod,et al.  Overlapping Mental Operations in Serial Performance with Preview: Typing. A Reply to Pashler , 1994 .

[22]  Bonnie E. John A Quantitative Model of Expert Transcription Typing , 1993 .

[23]  Allen Newell,et al.  The keystroke-level model for user performance time with interactive systems , 1980, CACM.

[24]  William E. Cooper,et al.  Cognitive Aspects of Skilled Typewriting , 2011, Springer New York.

[25]  D. Gentner The acquisition of typewriting skill , 1983 .

[26]  L. H. Shaffer,et al.  Control Processes in Typing , 1975 .

[27]  Richard Schweickert,et al.  A critical path generalization of the additive factor method: Analysis of a stroop task , 1978 .

[28]  L. H. Shaffer,et al.  Timing in the Motor Programming of Typing , 1978 .

[29]  A. Newell Unified Theories of Cognition , 1990 .

[30]  D. Gentner Timing of Skilled Motor Performance: Tests of the Proportional Duration Model. , 1987 .

[31]  T. Salthouse Effects of age and skill in typing. , 1984, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[32]  Bonnie E. John,et al.  Analyzing graphic and textual layouts with GOMS: results of a preliminary analysis , 1994, CHI Conference Companion.

[33]  T. Salthouse,et al.  Multiple spans in transcription typing. , 1987, The Journal of applied psychology.

[34]  G. Logan On the ability to inhibit complex movements: A stop-signal study of typewriting. , 1982 .

[35]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Parallel distributed processing: explorations in the microstructure of cognition, vol. 1: foundations , 1986 .

[36]  R A Heath,et al.  A stochastic model for inter-keypress times in a typing task. , 1990, Acta psychologica.

[37]  Donald A. Norman,et al.  Simulating a Skilled Typist: A Study of Skilled Cognitive-Motor Performance , 1982, Cogn. Sci..

[38]  E. Hoffmann,et al.  Geometrical conditions for ballistic and visually controlled movements. , 1988, Ergonomics.