Fatigue and performance variability among typists

Abstract

Investigation of typewriting fatique and consistency of performance as a function of level of typing skill employed 234 high school & college Ss at typing-skill levels from 5-108 words/min. Ss typed ordinary prose for 30 uninterrupted min. in a manner permitting scoring of the work for speed and number of errors in each minute individually and cumulatively. Although significant fluctuations from a constant level of performance were found at all skill levels, the extent of speed, but not error, fluctuations differed among the skill levels. Principally, decrements in quality of work as the work period progressed decreased with increase in skill level, while correlations between trials and speed for the various skill levels did not exhibit any regular trend. Absolute decrements in performance during the work period were judged too small to be of any practical consequence and call into question the conventional practice of confining practice and test duration to 1-3 min. during the early months of typewriting training. Relative consistency of speed scores was found to increase with level of skill; however, except for those at the lowest skill levels, relative stability of error scores decreased with increase in skill. While a 1-min sample of performance furnishes a highly reliable measure of speed, error measures require at least a 5-min sample for adequate reliability. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)