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    Accuracy and speed

    • Started by DreymaR
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    • From: Viken, Norway
    • Registered: 13-Dec-2006
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    Surgical Supersonic Speed-Typing

    This keeps coming up: We all seem to agree that accuracy is vital to typing speed. So I took a glance at my Amphetype logs, and saw this trend (more or less):
    • I've set the minimum accuracy for texts at 97%. When I fail that, my speed is usually low too.
    • Accuracy ≈97.0% is frequently paired with speeds ≈60 WPM
    • Accuracy ≈97.5% is frequently paired with speeds ≈65 WPM
    • Accuracy ≈98.0% is frequently paired with speeds ≈70 WPM
    • Accuracy ≈98.5% is frequently paired with speeds ≈75 WPM
    • Accuracy ≈99.0% or higher is rare for me, and although I've hit a little over 80 WPM I don't see a direct link.

    I think much of the speed reduction at high error rates is due to frequent correcting and lack of flow. Not sure how much each of these factors contributes.

    If I do word practice in Amphetype, I'll set the accuracy threshold higher, usually at 98%. If I could have set it to 98.5% I'd have used that, so maybe in the future I'll use 99%.

    But I just thought I'd chime in with my experiences on this. What about you guys, similar experiences and sentiments?

    Hmmm... this makes me want to try firing up the old Typing Of The Dead and do accuracy challenges there...

    Last edited by DreymaR (02-Mar-2017 10:54:39)

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    • From: Viken, Norway
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    TED-Ed Talks Truthfully

    A propos: This TED-Ed video about practice is well worth watching I think. It links in nicely with what we've been saying.

    In particular, note that rehearsing sufficiently slowly and accurately at first is vital to reinforcing the correct neural pathways.

    So when you find yourself making a lot of errors, take a little break and reset your mind, and then come back with focus and calm.

    https://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-to-pract … don-greene

    (You can find the video on YouTube and Facebook too, if you're so inclined. Its title is "How to practice effectively for just about anything".)

    Last edited by DreymaR (02-Mar-2017 10:53:04)

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    • From: Viken, Norway
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    Dead-On Typing

    Yeah, Typing Of The Dead got mentioned again. Heh. So much fun.

    Have anyone tried out the updated version available at Steam? It may have more shine, but it appears to have less challenge modes. The original even had a typing course (albeit QWERTY-based of course).

    http://store.steampowered.com/app/246580/

    The original is still lying about, so if you're interested you may give it a spin (of the gun barrel):

    http://www.theisozone.com/downloads/pc/ … e-dead-pc/

    Last edited by DreymaR (02-Mar-2017 11:23:48)

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    are those amphetype stats for typing *the same* text though. If not I think it just indicates you type easy text quicker and more accurately than hard text, which is expected.

    If it is the same text, then I think you're insights are right.

    For sure, forcing a slow-down to improve accuracy rarely seems to result in a lower wpm, and as you say, quite often its actually faster. So its only your perception that your typing slowly, in reality its quicker. For me the perception of slower typing is being well in control, perception of typing fast is that I'm on the edge of a disaster. And perception-fast often means wpm slow.

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    It's not the same text snippet over and over, but multiple text snippets from day to day. So I think my claims hold. Furthermore, I see how my flow is excellent at times and not at other times, regardless of the text snippet in question.

    I never shirk from hard text. Currently I'm type-reading an old book on Greek mythology. Good thing I have a good layout so I can type the occasional æ and ï in those books, or references that amusingly pop {1} up between words in a fashion no longer common [2]. The name of Hades is written in the old way, as Aïdes! Fun.

    I cannot say for sure, but I don't feel that the hard text is what leads to most errors for me (albeit some slow-down). I see from the Amphetype stats that the word "Zeus" is hard, but other than a few hard ones like that I take the biggest hit from common words like 'their there then' etc.

    The maker of Amphetype was interested in smooth typing, so he made the "viscosity" parameter (which I think might be better called "irregularity", or its inverse "fluidity"). Indeed, the best days feel flowing and effortless. This is not to say that the typing speed doesn't vary between simple/common and harder words, but that there is an overall smoothness to the experience that leads to good flow. Pretty much regardless of the text.

    Sean Wrona won the typing championship with one normal and one very hard-to-type text. It was on the hardest text he really outclassed his opponent, if I recall correctly. He can just keep his flow up without getting stressed. He's a beast at long-distance typing, too.


    ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
    {1}: Old book style reference (in between words)
    [2]: Modern-style reference (after the phrase)

    Last edited by DreymaR (02-Mar-2017 11:52:58)

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    I haven't delved into the amphetype src too closely, but i'm wondering is the case with common words causing more mistakes simply because your typing them maybe 100 times more often, i.e. you'd expect more errors typing 'their' 100 times than 'zeus' twice? Or is there a frequency division in there to normalise it?

    Last edited by bph (02-Mar-2017 12:06:23)
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    I'm not sure whether there's a frequency normalisation. You can filter by count to avoid seeing the rarest words, but obviously in my book about Greek mythology there's bound to be a high number of 'Zeus' and 'Hera' to challenge me, in addition to 'with', 'which', 'that', 'were' etc. I've typed 'Zeus' 56 times in that book, vs 'with' 88 and 'which' 87 times!

    I think Amphetype tries to show you which words/trigrams/etc actually did most damage to your typing lately. That is, no normalisation and therefore dependent on text content. But the same common words show up in all texts, pretty much.

    When I type-read that English 17th-Century erotic book, the analysis tab made me blush. Apparently, some graphic words tripped me up a lot. :-D

    Last edited by DreymaR (02-Mar-2017 15:08:40)

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    I prefer accuracy over speed. I usually get 99% when I use Amphetype. You don't have to type fast, because you will need to do so very rarely.

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