Mind Tricks

During my freshman year of college, I went where few computer nerds go: I learned the DVORAK keyboard layout.

I first heard of the DVORAK keyboard layout by one of my Dad's co-workers while attending a company party at the Galt House for Thunder over Louisville. QWERTY was designed to separate frequently used pairs of letters, to prevent the typebars in typewriters from getting stuck. I don't know how much thought was put into the efficiency of the QWERTY layout, but it made sense to me that a layout existed that was more efficient.



And so in the summer of 2002, I began to learn a new language. To learn, some suggested switching the key caps on the keyboard to match the DVORAK keyboard or buying DVORAK keyboard stickers to cover the QWERTY letters. I went the cheap and simple route and printed a layout of the keyboard and taped it to my monitor. I switched my keyboard layout in Windows and all the sudden, my QWERTY keyboard was a DVORAK keyboard. ASDFG were no longer the home keys, they were now AOEU. I quit QWERTY cold turkey and practiced and practiced. I used typing programs to quickly teach my fingers frequently used pairs of letters and short words such as "the" and "of." Within a couple weeks, I was fairly proficient at using DVORAK.



The human mind is an amazing work of God. I had learned DVORAK without looking at the keyboard, but by looking at the piece of paper with the keys. My mind had mapped the keys and their positions by seeing the keyboard layout. Because the keys I was pressing were labeled differently, I had to rely upon this mental mapping of keys in the beginning stage of learning how to type. Soon afterwards, my fingers learned how to do the typing and I no longer had to refer to that mental map to know where a letter was on the keyboard. I imagine that a pianist may understand this concept.



I had been using DVORAK on my computer for three years. I used it at home and on my co-ops on my work computer. After years of use, I had become very comfortable and proficient with it. Because I had not been using QWERTY, I discovered that I was unable to type in QWERTY without looking at the keyboard. My mind had forgotten QWERTY! I was able to look at the keyboard to get me started at QWERTY again, and it wasn't long before I was touch typing in both QWERTY and DVORAK. My mind and fingers had both layouts memorized.




Currently, I'm embarking on an experiment; I am learning a third keyboard layout. COLEMAK appears to be a mix between QWERTY and DVORAK. It places the most used keys on the home row like DVORAK, yet keeps the undo, cut, copy, paste keys (zxcv) and the punctuation keys in the same place as QWERTY. My mind tells me that this layout feels closer to QWERTY.




The experiment is not to see whether I can learn it (because I think I can), but is whether I can quickly switch between all three layouts- mentally. Currently, I am able to mentally switch between DVORAK and QWERTY. What I'm interested in discovering is if my mind can call upon any of the two layouts that I have mentally mapped (DVORAK and COLEMAK) at any time. (QWERTY doesn't count because if I get into a bind, I can always look at the keys on the keyboard, which will trigger QWERTY to be used.)

I am currently using COLEMAK to type this post. It has taken a while, but I already feel better at it. I feel that my fingers are beginning to learn where the keys are. I'll report on the results.