Abstract
Online experimentation is emerging as a new methodology within classical data acquisition in psychology. It allows for easy, fast, broad, and cheap data conduction from the comfort of people’s homes. To add another method to the array of available tools, here we used recent developments in web technology to investigate the technical feasibility of online HyperText Markup Language-5/JavaScript-based video data recording. We employed a preferential looking task with children between 4 and 24 months. Parents and their children participated from home through a three-stage process: First, interested adults registered and took pictures through a webcam-based photo application. In the second step, we edited the pictures and integrated them into the design. Lastly, participants returned to the website and the video data acquisition took place through their webcam. In sum, we were able to create and employ the video recording application with participants as young as 4 months old. Quality-wise, no participant had to be removed due to the framerate or quality of videos and only 7% of data was excluded due to behavioral factors (lack of concentration). Results-wise, interrater reliability of rated looking side (left/right) showed a high agreement between raters, Fleiss’ Kappa, κ = 0.97, which can be translated to sufficient data quality for further analyses. With regard to on-/off-screen attention attribution, we found that children lost interest after about 10 s after trial onset using a static image presentation or 60 s total experimental time. Taken together, we were able to show that online video data recording is possible and viable for developmental psychology and beyond.
Highlights
IntroductionPsychological science has started to utilize the Internet as a new method of data acquisition
Over the last decade, psychological science has started to utilize the Internet as a new method of data acquisition
We found that the technological implementation and the resulting data quality are sufficient for the task, with a lower exclusion rate (7%) due to behavioral factors than classical in-lab studies (25– 70% loss, Richardson and McCluskey, 1983)
Summary
Psychological science has started to utilize the Internet as a new method of data acquisition. The advantages of online experimentation are numerous: fast, low-cost, and parallel data acquisition that is independent of time and location is paired with the ability to access special populations, who might not be able to participate in in-lab studies (Birnbaum, 2004). These advantages broaden and speed up the experimental cycle of Looking Tasks Online experiment creation, data acquisition, and analysis and allow scientists to reach conclusions to their questions in a faster, more efficient, and more unbiased way. Processing data from webcams and microphones are not treated as a specialty anymore, but becomes a common approach in web technology
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