Effects of disfluency in writing

Abstract

While much previous research has suggested that decreased transcription fluency has a detrimental effect on writing, there is recent evidence that decreased fluency can actually benefit cognitive processing. Across a series of experiments, we manipulated transcription fluency of ostensibly skilled typewriters by asking them to type essays in two conditions: both-handed and one-handed typewriting. We used the Coh-Metrix text analyser to investigate the effects of decreased transcription fluency on various aspects of essay writing, such as lexical sophistication, sentence complexity, and cohesion of essays (important indicators of successful writing). We demonstrate that decreased fluency can benefit certain aspects of writing and discuss potential mechanisms underlying disfluency effects in essay writing.

Disfluency effects on lexical selection

“…Recent research has suggested that in some circumstances, introducing a disfluency can benefit performance (e.g., Ball, Klein, & Brewer, 2014;Mueller & Oppenheimer, 2014). A surprising example of this general phenomenon was recently reported in the context of written composition by Medimorec and Risko (2016), who found that decreasing transcription fluency (or typing speed) by having individuals type with one hand resulted in more lexically sophisticated essays. This finding is surprising theoretically because transcription fluency is typically thought to be positively correlated with writing quality as the automatization of transcription arguably affords the re-distribution of resources to higher level writing processes such as planning (Fayol, 1999;Kellogg, 1999).…”

Pauses in written composition: on the importance of where writers pause

“…282 Transcription fluency was calculated as the mean keystroke interval within a word 283 (onset of the current letter keypress-onset of the previous letter keypress in ms; 284 e.g., Medimorec & Risko, 2016; but also see Strömqvist, 1999). The keystrokes 285 equal to or exceeding 2.5 SD within each participant individually were excluded, 286 resulting in the removal of 1.5% of keystrokes (mean values of transcription fluency 287 across genres are presented in Table 1).…”

“…In the current study we analyze pauses in composition using a large set of 163 approximately 500-word narrative and argumentative typewritten essays collected 164 as a part of an independent research project(Medimorec & Risko, 2016). In the 165 current study we use a pause rate measure, calculated as an average number of 166 pauses per text boundary (i.e., pause rate per word, sentence, and paragraph).…”

What Can Screen Capture Reveal About Students’ Use of Software Tools When Undertaking a Paraphrasing Task?

“…The ongoing development of grammar/style and spelling checkers has prompted several scholars to revisit these tools and their pedagogic uses (Buck 2008, Figueredo and Varnhagen 2006, McGee and Ericsson 2002, Potter and Fuller 2008, Vernon 2000. Investigations which compare the processes of composing by hand or on a computer explore their respective effects on the cognitive process (Medimorec and Risko 2016), early writing outcomes (Wollscheid, Sjaastad and Tømte 2016), and the implications for time-constrained assessments (Hunsu 2015, Mogey and Fluck 2015, Whithaus, Harrison and Midyette 2008. While research in the latter field assumes a widespread familiarity with word-processing and the supersession of handwriting with keyboarding skills, it also acknowledges that not all students are equally comfortable composing on a computer.…”