Inter-Key Stroke Intervals

schmit22

Hi there,

For an online experiment we are interested in the inter-key stroke intervals of participants, i.e. how much time elapses between key presses while typing a text. I spent quite some time looking around, but I could not figure out whether this can be measured with OpenSesame, and if so how.

Thus the question: Is this doable with OpenSesame? (If there is an answer to this question somewhere already, a push towards the right direction or a link would be very much appreciated.)

Thanks in advance, regards

DahmSF

Hi schmit,

it is possible to calculate interkeystroke intervals of keyboard responses if you ask for single responses.

For any stimulus or response there is a time measured. Just look at the variable inspector of your experiment. So this is quite easy.

You can calculate the difference between time_RESP1-time_RESP2 either in an inline_script directly in opensesame or afterwards in your analysis tool (e.g. R-studio).

But you are asking about the text_input form, right? I am not sure whether this works.

However you could create your own text input loop by using single keyboard responses in a while loop and giving feedback of the responses via visual output.

Best Stephan

eduard

Hi Schmit,

Like Stephan said, inter stroke time for single key responses is easy, and not possible with the text input form. However, if you are willing to invest some time programming you can definitely implement a procedure that does the trick. If you are interested I can give you pointers for it.

It could be more prohibitive though that you plan to run an online study. You see, for that you would not want to use Opensesame, but OSweb, with the important difference that you would need to implement everything with Javascript. I am not sure whether it is possible, it certainly will be challenging, as you have to implement it by yourself (unless you find some inspiration on the web) .

Alternatively, you might be able to use some proxies, like measuring the complete typing time, and dividing by the number of keystrokes?

Hope this clears things up a bit.

Eduard