Acquisition process of typing skill using hierarchical materials in the Japanese language

# The Author(s) 2014. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract In the present study, using a new keyboard layout with only eight keys, we conducted typing training for un-skilled typists. In this task, Japanese college students received training in typing words consisting of a pair of hiragana characters with four keystrokes, using the alphabetic input method, while keeping the association between the keys and typists ’ finger movements; the task was constructed so that chunking was readily available. We manipulated the associa-tion between the hiragana characters and alphabet letters (hierarchical materials: overlapped and nonoverlapped map-pings). Our alphabet letter materials corresponded to the reg-ular order within each hiragana word (within the four letters, the first and third referred to consonants, and the second and fourth referred to vowels). Only the interkeystroke intervals involved in the initiation of typing vowel letters showed an overlapping effect, which revealed that the effect was mark-edly large only during the early period of skill development (the effect for the overlapped mapping being larger than that for the nonoverlapped mapping), but that it had diminished by the time of late training. Conversely, the response time and the third interkeystroke interval, which are both involved in the latency of typing a consonant letter, did not reveal an overlap-ped effect, suggesting that chunking might be useful with hiragana characters rather than hiragana words. These results are discussed in terms of the fan effect and skill acquisition. Furthermore, we discuss whether there is a need for further research on unskilled and skilled Japanese typists