Class TypingTestExperiment

java.lang.Object
  TypingTestExperiment

public class TypingTestExperiment
extends java.lang.Object

TypingTestExperiment

Summary

• Experiment software to implement a simple typing test.

• Demonstrates the dependent measurements typically gathered in text entry experiments (e.g., entry speed in words per minute, KSPC, and the MSD error rate).

Related References

• Text entry for mobile computing: Models and methods, theory and practice, by MacKenzie and Soukoreff (Human-Computer Interaction, 2002). This paper includes an extensive analysis on typing (more broadly known as text entry), including input methods, evaluation methods, and user performance measures.

• KSPC (keystrokes per character) as a characteristic of text entry techniques, by MacKenzie (Proceedings of the Fourth International Symposium on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices, 2002). This is the original paper that introduced KSPC (keystrokes per character) as a metric for text entry research.

• Measuring errors in text entry tasks: An application of the Levenshtein string distance statistic, by Soukoreff and MacKenzie (Extended Abstracts of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI 2001, 2001). This is the original paper that introduced the minimum string distance (MSD) method for measuring error rates in text entry research.

Running the Experiment Software

Click here for instructions on launching/running the application.

Setup Parameters

Upon launching, the program presents a setup dialog:

The default parameter settings are read from a configuration file called TypingTestExperiment.cfg. This file is created automatically when the application is launched for the first time. The default parameter settings may be changed through the setup dialog. The setup parameters are as follows:

Parameter	Description
Participant Code	Identifies the current participant. This is used in forming the names for the output data files. Also, the sd2 output data file includes a column with the participant code.
Condition Code	An arbitrary code used to associate a test condition with this invocation. This parameter might be useful if the software is used in an experiment, since conditions might be tested that are not inherently part of the application (e.g., Gender → male, female; Input method → mouse, stylus). The condition code is used in forming the name for the output data file. Also, the sd2 output data file contains a column with the condition code.
Session Code	Identifies the session. This is useful if testing proceeds over multiple sessions to gauge the progression of learning. The session code is used in forming the name for the output data file. Also, the sd2 output data file contains a column with the condition code. Note: The setup dialog does not include an entry for "Block code". The block code is generated automatically by the software.
Number of Phrases	Specifies the number of phrases presented to the participant in the current block.
Phrases File	Specifies a file containing phrases of text to be presented to participants for entry. Phrases are drawn from the file at random. Typically, phrases2.txt is used. This is the phrase set published by MacKenzie and Soukoreff in 2003 (click here). Other file names may be specified. For example, the file quickbrownfox.txt contains the phrase the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog This file might be useful for demonstration or specialized testing.
Show Presented Text During Input	A checkbox item that determines whether or not the presented text is visible during entry of a phrase. Either way, the text phrase appears at the beginning of a trial. If this option is unchecked, the phrase will disappear when the first keystroke is entered.

Program Operation

When the main program window opens, a phrase of text appears in the presented text field. As the user types, text appears in the transcribed text field. Timing begins with the first keystroke. At the end of each phrase, the user presses the ENTER key. This terminates entry of the current phrase, displays the summary statistics, and brings up the next phrase to be entered.

Here's a screen snap of the program in action...

Output Data Files

At the end of a block, two output data files are created, an "sd1" file and an "sd2" file. ("sd" is for "summary data".) The sd1 file contains the presented and transcribed text and the sampled keystrokes with timestamps for each phrase entered. The sd2 file contains summary data, one line per phrase.

Here are example output data files:

• sd1 example
• sd2 example

The data in the sd2 file are full-precision, comma-delimited. Importing into a spreadsheet application provides a convenient method to examine the data on a phrase-by-phrase basis. Below is an example of how the data might look after importing into Microsoft Excel: (click to enlarge)

Actual output files use "TypingTestExperiment" as the base filename. This is followed by the participant code, the condition code, the session code, and the block code, for example, TypingTestExperiment-P01-C01-S01-B01.sd2.

Miscellaneous

When using this program in an experiment, it is a good idea to terminate all other applications and disable the system's network connection. This will maintain the integrity of the data collected and ensure that the program runs without hesitations.

Author:

Scott MacKenzie, 2001-2015, Steven Castellucci, 2014

Constructor Summary

TypingTestExperiment()

Method Summary

static void

main(java.lang.String[] args)

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

equals, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

TypingTestExperiment

public TypingTestExperiment()

Method Detail

main

public static void main(java.lang.String[] args)
                 throws java.io.IOException

Throws:

java.io.IOException