Abstract
In Experiment 1, subjects printed the alphabet faster than they wrote it. In Experiment 2, copying of familiar words was equally fast when written or printed (in lowercase). Printing in uppercase was slowest. For both writing and printing, performance was faster on the word task than on the alphabet task, the fastest speeds ranging from 2.01 to 2.58 letters/sec. In both experiments, most subjects expressed a preference for writing over printing on tasks outside the laboratory.
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I appreciate the help of Sandra Womack, who gathered the data in Experiment 1, and the comments of Michael Goodman.
An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03329583.
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Newman, S.E. Speed of writing and printing. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 16, 283–286 (1980). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329544
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03329544