“Expert typists are able to zoom across the keyboard without ever thinking about which fingers are pressing the keys. New research from Vanderbilt University reveals that this skill is managed by an autopilot, one that is able to catch errors that can fool our conscious brain.
The research was published in the Oct. 29 issue of Science.
“We all know we do some things on autopilot, from walking to doing familiar tasks like making coffee and, in this study, typing. What we don’t know as scientists is how people are able to control their autopilots,” Gordon Logan, Centennial Professor of Psychology and lead author of the new research, said. “The remarkable thing we found is that these processes are disassociated. The hands know when the hands make an error, even when the mind does not.”
To determine the relationship between the autopilot and the conscious brain, or pilot, and the role of each in detecting errors, Logan and co-author Matthew Crump designed a series of experiments to break the normal connection between what we see on the screen and what our fingers feel as they type.
In the first experiment, Logan and Crump had skilled typists type in words that appeared on the screen and then report whether or not they had made any errors. Using a computer program they created, the researchers either randomly inserted errors that the user had not made or corrected errors the user had made. They also timed the typists’ typing speed, looking for the slowdown that is known to occur when one hits the wrong key. They then asked the typists to evaluate their overall performance.
The researchers found the typists generally took the blame for the errors the program had inserted and took the credit for mistakes the computer had corrected. They were fooled by the program. However, their fingers, as managed by the autopilot, were not – the typists slowed down when they actually made an error, as expected, and did not slow down when a false error appeared on the screen.”
Read more at Lab Spaces (Thanks Johnny5)
As someone who has always marvelled at humans’ ability to play the piano (and plays a little myself), this doesn’t strike me as a particularly new revelation – I would have thought this was fairly obvious!
As an improving pianist, I can ‘feel’ my hands ‘learning’ the music. When I think about it too much, I make mistakes. My hands know much better than me!
It is often referred to as muscle memory, isn’t it? I often wonder if the skill is in the temporal lobe, motor cortex, the brainstem, the nerves of the arm and hand or in a combo of all four. Or is my neurology at fault?
As I type a lot, I managed the skill of typing while talking to someone and looking into their eyes, no matter where they are in a 360 degree radius, without looking at the screen, and generally I can tell when I make a mistake, because my hands expect to find a -full- key surface when they land, and at a certain relative distance from the previous key. If an edge is detected instead, I know I may have made an error, but only if my finger actually was sent to the right key, ’cause sometimes I type a totally wrong key and don’t notice, like “a” instead of “e” where an e is present (like the word “error” turned to “arror” while typing this comment). What’s more, I seem to be making these mistakes since I moved to the UK from Romania. I used to type better English before that
jejwo wpjfjpir sookv ;eoojg por [ubvcyw rjsool ro o[s[fk. o s#l;rkjd oof ofjhhwk iokkfg ooehhdb sp ojrsnl nnr [ nookk,ero,play ie my lowsy penist!
As someone who touch-types for a living, I’ve been trained to look at the work I’m keying, not the screen or the keys. If I suddenly start looking & thinking about what I’m doing I go wrong. So I hardly ever look at my keyboard at all.
I wouldn’t say I go correcting things on autopilot cos our system is such that if I’m checking someone else’s work it makes a noise if what we both key doesn’t match up. The strange thing is that both typists have been known to make the same error…
I also played the piano when I was younger for a few years. I can read music etc, but found that once I knew which keys were needed to play a piece & I didn’t need to refer to the music so much, then I was able to just let the music flow without thinking. Again, once I thought about things, I lost it.
LC x
I am a touch typist and find that if I actually look at the keyboard I start messing up or slowing down. I just let my fingers do their thing…. I agree with the comment that this can’t be a new find, surely!!
I play the guitar, and I’ve noticed the same phenomenon that Rob mentions in the above comment – I’ll learn a melody by playing it repetitively, and I’ve noticed that if I start thinking about the melody, consciously thinking about the frets I have to play, I make mistakes!
Rob – yes, I’ve heard it called muscle memory too. The basal ganglia is the part of the brain responsible for producing automatic learned movements.
The basal ganglia lie at the center of your brain, underneath the cortex. As a behavior becomes repeated over and over, they take over execution of the behavior from other more conscious parts of the brain. The basal ganglia are very well connected to the motor cortex and the part of your brain that plans movement, so you’re right, they work together.
http://www.alinenewton.com/images/basalganglia-2.jpg
Interesting article!
This is absolutely true and I think most of us suspected it. Not only pianists are a clear example (and my piano teacher always tells me when I perform badly: stop thinking!) But also, I’ve noticed that when I have to type a very long or foreign word, the faster I type it, the more accurate; and when I do it slowly the letters stick together and mess with my brain
Larkspurlazuli: Thanks for that. Will follow the link later when I have time.
Have visited your blog though – nice!
Interesting photos of Derren’s old flat in Bristol…