I have noticed that, while typing, there are moderate errors and there are bad errors.
The moderate errors are not so bad, while the bad errors significantly hurt your typing speed. With moderate errors, you only have to backspace one or two characters; with bad errors, you have to backspace five or more characters. What causes this?
My hypothesis is that there are some errors that we are aware of making and others that we are not. If you make an error but are immediately aware of it, you can immediately stop typing and fix it. But if you do not *feel* yourself make the error, you have to see yourself make it. By the time your eyes send the correct message to your brain, however, it's too late. You've already typed out the rest of the word.
To test this, I typed the first few paragraphs of Pride and Prejudice while not looking at what I was typing. I made a lot more errors than you see here, but most of the time I felt the error and I was able to fix it.
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrouuunding (error) families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.
"My dear Mr. Bennet," said his lady to himo ne (error) day, "have you heard that Netherfield Park is let at last?"
Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
"But ti (error) is," returned she; "for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she told me all about it."
Mr. Bennet made no answer.
"Do you not want to know who has taken it?" cried his wife impatiently.
"You want to ell (error) me, and I have no objection to hearing it."
This was invitation enough.
"Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north of England; that he came down on Monday in a chaise and four to see the place, and wasso (error) much delighted with it, that he agreed with Mr. Morris immediately; that he is to take possession before Michaelmas, and some of his servants are to be in the house by the end ofo (error) next week."
total errors: 6
On the third paragraph I typed "himo ne" instead of "him one", which is a simple transposition error. I did the same thing in the fifth paragraph with "ti" instead of "it". Transposition errors are difficult to feel because it virtually feels like your fingers hit the keyboard at the same time. I think that the errors you don't feel are the ones that take longer to fix, but I'm not sure how to test this.
For comparison, here I typed the same passage without looking and did not correct any errors:
It is a truth universally acknowledged, thata (2 errors) single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in wanto fa ife (3 errors).
However little known the feelings ov (error) riews (error) of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding faimliies (error), that he is considedre (error) the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.
"My dear Mr. Bennet," said ihs (error) ilady (error) to him one day, "have you heard that Netherfield Prark (error) is let at last?"
Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.
"But itis, (error)" returned she; "for Mrs. Long has just been here, and seh (error) told me all about it."
Mr. Beennet (error) made no ansewr. (error)
"Do you not want to know who has taken it?" creid (error) is wife impatiently.
(error)
This was invitatione (error) enough.
"Why, my dear, you must know, Mrs. Long says that Netherfield is taken by a young man of large fortune from the north o England; that he came down on Monday in a caise (error) and four to see the place, and was so muchd (error) elighted with it, that he agreed with Mr.s (error) Morris immediately, that he is to take possession befroe (error) Michaelmas, and mose (error) of his servants are to be in the house by the end of the week.
errors: 22
As you can see, I can catch most of my errors just by feeling them. I suspect that the errors that I don't feel are the ones that take longer to correct, but again, I'm not sure. What I do know is that the really bad kind of error is where you type several characters ahead before realizing that you made an error. This could also be caused, I suppose, by typing a fast pattern right after the error. Suppose you type the imaginary word "hearst" -- the "arst" part would be really easy. If you make an error on the "h" or "e", chances are you will have already typed out the entire rest of the word before you catch yourself.
What do you think makes a bad error bad? Just how much of an effect do mistakes have on typing speed? How can we avoid bad errors as much as possible?
Edit: I marked all the errors in the text I typed to make them easier to see.
My typing speed record: http://hi-games.net/typing-test/watch?u=493