Discerning Mouse Trajectory Features with Drift Diffusion Model

Abstract

In decision-making tasks, participants are commonly instructed to respond by pressing a key. This design provides information about how fast and accurate an individual can respond but does not allow a researcher to directly study the process of response selection. Recently, mouse cursor tracking has been applied to offset this limitation. However, it is unclear whether RT/accuracy-based measures and mouse movement features (e.g. velocity) assess the same cognitive processes. To clarify the relationship between mouse movement features and cognitive processes, we developed mouse-tracking versions of the stop-signal and delay discounting tasks and investigated a) whether people respond similarly in the tasks with traditional design and tasks employing mouse cursor tracking; b) which features of the decision-making process mouse movement measures correspond with. Although participants responded similarly in tasks with traditional and mouse tracking design, only a few mouse movement features were related to the elements of the decision-making process.