The keyboards are (still) all right in response time experiments

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Behavioral Neuroscience
• Experimental Psychology

Background:

• Response times (RTs) are crucial for evaluating cognitive and motor functions.
• Keyboard variability, particularly in online experiments, poses a challenge for accurate RT measurement.
• Concerns exist regarding the reliability of RT data collected with standard keyboards.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the influence of keyboard delays on response time (RT) measurements.
• To determine the practical implications of keyboard-induced variability on statistical power and error rates in behavioral research.
• To validate the suitability of commercially available keyboards for online RT experiments.

Main Methods:

• Simulations were employed to model the impact of keyboard delays on RT data.
• Linear mixed-effects models were utilized for statistical analysis.
• Grouped data t-tests were applied to assess statistical significance.

Main Results:

• Keyboard delays had a minimal impact on statistical power in the majority of simulated scenarios.
• Keyboard-induced variability did not inflate Type I error rates.
• A negligible effect on statistical power was observed, except in specific cases involving RT distribution shifts or low signal-to-noise ratios in individual differences research.

Conclusions:

• Commercially available keyboards are generally suitable for most response time (RT) experiments, including those conducted online.
• The impact of keyboard delays on the validity of RT data is minimal under typical experimental conditions.
• Researchers can be confident in using standard keyboards for online behavioral studies without significant compromise to data integrity.