Developing pause thresholds for keystroke logging analysis

Research on the process of writing uses bursts and pauses as key artifacts of underlying cognitive processes. However, the definition of a pause in writing is primarily based on tradition and ease of comparison between studies. This study explores keystroke logging data collected from middle school...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rosenqvist, Simon
Format: Bachelor Thesis
Language:English
Published: Umeå universitet, Institutionen för psykologi 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-105870
Description
Summary:Research on the process of writing uses bursts and pauses as key artifacts of underlying cognitive processes. However, the definition of a pause in writing is primarily based on tradition and ease of comparison between studies. This study explores keystroke logging data collected from middle school pupils (N=46) in northern Sweden, Norway and Finland and questions the traditionally defined pause’s usefulness, comparability and validity for investigating the underlying cognitive processes during writing. By examining the raw computer keystroke log data it was revealed that the group had a large variance in typing speed between participants and that different textual contexts had big variances compared to each other. Through exploration of different pause definitions’ effects on the text it was concluded that the twice the median length of pause (median x 2) was a good measurement for investigating pauses in sentences. Further, the 1.5 times the median (median x 1.5) for pauses between keystrokes within words proved useful for investigating the production of individual words. Forskning på skrivprocesser har länge använt kaskader och pauser som nyckelartefakter av underliggande kognitiva processer. Definitionen av en paus i skrivande är dock främst baserade på tradition och direkt jämförbarhet mellan studier. Denna studie utforskar loggade tangenttrycknings data insamlade från elever (N=46) i mellanstadiet i skolor i norra Sverige, Norge och Finland och ifrågasätter den traditionellt definerade pausens användbarhet, jämförbarhet och validitet för att utforska underliggande kognitiva processer under skrivande. Genom att granska rå-data visade det sig att gruppen som helhet hade stora skillnader i skrivhastighet mellan deltagarna och att olika textuella kontext hade stora skillnader jämfört med varandra. Genom en undersökning av olika paus definitioners effekter på text kom det fram att dubbla längden på medianen för pauser (medianen x 2) var ett bra mått för att undersöka pauser i meningar. Dessutom var 1.5 gånger ...