MouselabWEB: Monitoring information acquisition processes on the Web
MouselabWEB is a process tracing tool that can be used to monitor the information acquisition process of decision makers. This technology has been used extensively in applications to understand the decisions made by financial analysts, submarine commanders, and ordinary consumers. It is derived from earlier work studying decision processes termed MouseLab, and the original site is here.
The design philosophy behind MouselabWEB is to allow process tracing in ordinary web browsing, causing a minimum of hassle on the part of the decision-maker. This currently requires the experimenter to build simple web pages using an HTML editor, a process greatly facilitated by the MouselabWEB Designer. MouselabWEB is open-source and we encourage others to help with the development.
Technically, MouselabWEB uses technology already in the browser, dynamic HTML and javascript technology, and can therefore be implemented inside existing web pages and used as a tool in internet questionnaires. The technology is simple, and the user (participant) does not need to download plugins or other software: just one of a large set of fairly recent and common browsers is sufficient to view and use a MouselabWEB page.
How does it work?
Information in MouselabWEB is hidden behind boxes. To access the information, the decision maker moves the mouse pointer over the box on the screen. As long as the pointer is over the box, it will display the information. Whenever the pointer moves out of the box, the box closes and the information is hidden again. The program records the time of each box opening and closing. Try it yourself in the example below that shows a simple MouselabWEB table structure.
Now click on the show data button, and see what you did! Also try counterbalancing. This is done easily in MouselabWEB.