Using words instead of jumbled characters as stimuli in keyboard training facilitates fluent performance.
Keyboarding skill is an important target for adult education programs due to the ubiquity of computers in modern work environments. A previous study showed that novice typists learned key locations quickly but that fluency took a relatively long time to develop. In the present study, novice typists achieved fluent performance in nearly half the time when words rather than jumbled characters were used as stimuli. This suggests that using real words in the keyboarding program can enhance the efficiency of training.
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. defulio@jhmi.edu
Anthony
A
DeFulio
Darlene E
DE
Crone-Todd
Lauren V
LV
Long
Paul A
PA
Nuzzo
Kenneth
K
Silverman
D000328:Adult; D003201:Computers; D006801:Humans; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance