Developing pause thresholds for keystroke logging analysis

Abstract: 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.