Simon Tatham: I often find typos cognitively fascinating
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But this leads us to consider the Neuroscience/Cognitive effects of Typing by itself which is quite relevant today. More people type (Keyboard/Tablet/Smartphone) than write nowadays.
A Google search brought up a few studies;
1) Functional and cognitive correlates of typing speed in a large U.S. panel study - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-36500-7
2) Typing expertise in a large student population - https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41235-022-00424-3
3) The Neuroscience Behind Writing: Handwriting vs. Typing—Who Wins the Battle? - https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11943480/
4) Using Typing to Decode Language Production - https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/psychology/news/2019/nozar-typi...
W.r.t. typos, from (4) above;
Interestingly, they found that typing errors were not just a result of clumsy fingers slipping on the keys. No. According to Nozari, the errors were similar to errors in speech production. Mistyping was akin to misspeaking. Instead of saying ‘red bag,’ you say “bed rag,” switching the first sounds of the words. Many typing errors are very similar, switching the ‘r’ and the ‘b,’ which are not next to each other on the keyboard.
- Three physicist were there
- Six dentist agree
- All the specialist are here
Specifically, plural words ending in -ist, if you say them quickly, it’s easy to drop the final -s.
Why in the world would you leave it off when typing? Because you’re typing what you hear as you “say” it in your head.
I find it fascinating and super annoying. It’s jarring every time I read it.