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MouseTracker is a free-to-use, user-friendly software package
that allows researchers to record and analyze real-time hand
movements en route to responses on the screen (via the
x, y
coordinates of the computer mouse). By looking at the
dynamics of how participants' hand movements settle into
a response alternative--and how they may be partially
pulled toward other alternatives--researchers glean
valuable information about real-time mental processing.
It's basically like opening up a single reaction time
into a continuous, ongoing stream of rich cognitive
output. MouseTracker has impressive temporal resolution,
comparable to eye-tracking and event-related brain
potential (ERP) measures. Experiments can incorporate images, letter strings, and
sounds. Once recorded, participants' mouse trajectories
can be processed, visualized, averaged, and explored,
and measures of attraction/curvature, complexity,
velocity, and acceleration can be computed. Precise
characterizations of mouse trajectories' temporal and
spatial dynamics are also available, and these can shed
light on a variety of important empirical questions
across experimental psychology, cognitive science, and
beyond. (More) |
Current version: 2.18 (July 19, 2010)
Download! (Windows
XP/Vista/7)
>> Read the
2010 article describing and validating the software in
Behavior Research Methods
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