A web-based mouse-tracking task for early perceptual language processing

The study of language processing requires data from a wide range of languages but also data that are free from demand characteristics and meta-linguistic strategies. While eye-tracking has been successfully used to address the later issue, pragmatically, eye-tracking is often difficult to achieve with less well-studied languages. Therefore, the current paper presents a web-based mouse-tracking task that generates data that seem to reflect early perceptual processes similar to eye-tracking but which can be performed remotely. The task uses a set-up similar to early video games to entice participants to use language input as early as possible. The data presented here replicate an earlier eye-tracking study focusing on how reduced words are recognized. Fillers from the same study are also used, which show that the paradigm also reflects predictive semantic processing. It is concluded that the paradigm can be used to investigate lexical access, prosodic processing, and predictive semantic processing.