Typing shown to be an automatic action

A new study has found that skilled typists cannot identify the position of many keys on a standard QWERTY keyboard.

Cognitive psychologists at Vanderbilt and Kobe Universities studied 100 university students who completed a typing test. While they had 94% accuracy on typing, they could only place on average 15 letters on a blank keyboard.

Scientists say the research adds to knowledge of automatism – the ability to perform actions without conscious thought – and that typing is learnt as a conscious activity, but with repetition becomes automatic.