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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

The number of fingers does not determine typing speed [phys.org], new study shows. People using self-taught typing strategies were found to be as fast as trained typists.

Researchers from Aalto University studied the typing behavior of 30 people covering a broad range of age and skill. Their findings challenge the common belief that you need to have taken a touch typing course – to learn how to type with all 10 fingers – in order to be fast:

"We were surprised to observe that people who took a typing course, performed at similar average speed and accuracy, as those that taught typing to themselves and only used 6 fingers on average", explains doctoral candidate Anna Feit.

This is the first study that explores how people type if they never learned the touch typing system. To record the exact finger movements during typing, the researchers used a so called optical motion capture system. Therefore they placed reflective markers on the joints of the fingers and recorded their position with 12 high-speed infrared cameras. Similar high fidelity systems have been used in professional film-making.

"When you ask a person which fingers they use for typing, they cannot tell much. The motion tracking data exposes it, and for the first time we can exactly say which finger presses which key", explains Dr. Daryl Weir.

Original Submission