Mouse Movement Trajectories as an Indicator of Cognitive Workload

ABSTRACT

Assessing the cognitive impact of user interfaces is a shared focus of human-computer interaction researchers and cognitive scientists. Methods of cognitive assessment based on data derived from the system itself, rather than external apparatus, have the potential to be applied in a range of scenarios. The current study applied methods of analyzing kinematics to mouse movements in a computer-based task, alongside the detection response task, a standard workload measure. Sixty-five participants completed a task in which stationary stimuli were tar;geted using a mouse, with a within-subjects factor of task workload based on the number of targets to be hovered over with the mouse (one/two), and a between-subjects factor based on whether both targets (exhaustive) or just one target (minimum-time) needed to be hovered over to complete a trial when two targets were presented. Mouse movement onset times were slower and mouse movement trajectories exhibited more submovements when two targets were presented, than when one target was presented. Responses to the detection response task were also slower in this condition, indicating higher cognitive workload. However, these differences were only found for participants in the exhaustive condition, suggesting those in the minimum-time condition were not affected by the presence of the second target. Mouse movement trajectory results agreed with other measures of workload and task performance. Our findings suggest this analysis can be applied to workload assessments in real-world scenarios.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by an Australian Research Council grant [DP160102360] to AE, and by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship awarded to Alexander Thorpe

Notes on contributors

Alexander Thorpe

Alexander Thorpe is a researcher at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His research addresses the cognitive impacts of information delivery systems such as user interfaces on their users. He uses knowledge gained from a background in cognitive psychology to apply cognitive models of user workload to real-world scenarios.

Jason Friedman

Jason Friedman is a senior lecturer at Tel Aviv University, where he is codirector of the Movement Sciences lab. He combines his computational background with a clinical approach, where he works on better understanding the basic processes of how we coordinate our movements and learn to produce new movements.

Sylvia Evans

Sylvia Evans graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology (Honours) from the University of Newcastle, Australia in 2019. Her Honours research focused on the impact of increased cognitive load on computer users. Her work aimed to establish new ways of measuring workload through the application of mathematical models of workload.

Keith Nesbitt

Keith Nesbitt is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computing at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His main areas of scientific research include Human Interface Design and Information Visualisation with a particular focus on Perception and Cognition related to Computer Games and Virtual Reality.

Ami Eidels

Ami Eidels is an Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia. His research focuses on information processing models, and how various sources of information are processed and combined. He is co-editor of the Oxford handbook of computational and mathematical psychology, and guest editor for the Journal of Mathematical Psychology.