Mouse-tracking: A practical guide to implementation and analysis

A Handbook of Process Tracing Methods
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pp. 111-130
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New York, NY
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Routledge
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2019,

Anton Kühberger, Joseph G. Johnson,
Kieslich, Pascal J., Felix Henninger, Dirk U. Wulff, Jonas M. B. Haslbeck, Michael Schulte-Mecklenbeck
ISBN: 978-1-138-06421-8 (print); 978-1-315-16055-9 (online)
Abstract

This chapter provides an introduction to the collection, analysis, and visualization of mouse-tracking data using free, open-source software. It shows how to create mouse-tracking experiments using the graphical experiment builder OpenSesame in combination with the mousetrap plugin. The chapter demonstrates how a mouse-tracking experiment can be created in OpenSesame. The mouse sensitivity settings cannot be adjusted directly within OpenSesame, but need to be set in the computer’s system preferences. The mousetrap R package represents mouse-tracking data in a specialized data structure, a mousetrap data object. This allows the package to store and process mouse trajectories efficiently, and to link them to other information collected during the study. In addition to curvature, mouse-tracking studies have also used the complexity of the movement as an indicator of response competition. In mouse-tracking studies, participants’ cursor movements are recorded as they choose between different options represented as buttons on a computer screen.