Abstract
The continuous tracking of mouse or finger movements has become an increasingly popular research method for investigating cognitive and motivational processes such as decision-making, action-planning, and executive functions. In the present paper, we evaluate and discuss how apparently trivial design choices of researchers may impact participants’ behavior and, consequently, a study’s results. We first provide a thorough comparison of mouse- and finger-tracking setups on the basis of a Simon task. We then vary a comprehensive set of design factors, including spatial layout, movement extent, time of stimulus onset, size of the target areas, and hit detection in a finger-tracking variant of this task. We explore the impact of these variations on a broad spectrum of movement parameters that are typically used to describe movement trajectories. Based on our findings, we suggest several recommendations for best practice that avoid some of the pitfalls of the methodology. Keeping these recommendations in mind will allow for informed decisions when planning and conducting future tracking experiments.
Highlights
The analysis of continuous-movement trajectories has become an increasingly popular method in recent years for psychological research
Movement tracking allows the analysis of the final outcome of a decision process, and offers parameters that capitalize on the decision process itself, and have often been claimed to show how it unfolds over time (Freeman, Dale, & Farmer, 2011; McKinstry, Dale, & Spivey, 2008; Song & Nakayama, 2009; Spivey, Grosjean, & Knoblich, 2005)
In typical setups for mouse- or finger-tracking, participants start with the mouse cursor or their finger at the bottom center of the screen, and they choose an option by moving the cursor to one of two target areas located in the upper corners of the screen
Summary
The analysis of continuous-movement trajectories has become an increasingly popular method in recent years for psychological research. In typical setups for mouse- or finger-tracking, participants start with the mouse cursor or their finger at the bottom center of the screen, and they choose an option by moving the cursor to one of two target areas located in the upper corners of the screen. Even within this apparently simple setup, there are a range of design choices that researchers must make and that can lead to consequences for the behavior in question (e.g., Kieslich, Schoemann, Grage, Hepp, & Scherbaum, 2020). Parameters such as the size of the target areas and the distance of the target areas from the starting position can result in fundamentally different movements, with large target areas at a short distance requiring less spatially accurate movements than with small target areas that are placed far away (Fitts, 1954)
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