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Marc Grosjean has investigated the time course of cognition through measurements of action. In a 2005 study with colleagues, he analysed mouse tracking data to test how spoken word recognition unfolds while a listener is already moving toward a possible answer.^[ref]

Participants saw two pictured objects and heard the name of one. A target such as “candle” could appear beside “candy”, whose name shares its beginning, or beside a phonologically unrelated object. The investigators sampled the cursor's coordinates during the movement, rather than recording only its endpoint. Movements toward the correct object were drawn farther toward the competing object in the similar-name condition.^[ref]

The example makes a measurement distinction concrete. Two trials can end with the same correct click yet follow different paths, revealing phonological competition that accuracy alone would miss. The cursor is an observable motor response, so conclusions about internal representations still require an explicit model connecting movement with language processing.

Mouse tracking records a computer pointer's trajectory over time as a behavioral measure. In psycholinguistics, its Cartesian coordinates can reveal differences between trials that end in the same choice. The trajectory complements final accuracy and reaction time by preserving part of the movement toward the response.

Michael Spivey, Marc Grosjean and Günther Knoblich tested 42 participants with two object pictures in opposite upper corners of a screen. Participants started at the bottom center; a prerecorded word named the target 0.5 seconds after the pictures appeared. A candy distractor shared initial sounds with the target candle, while a jacket provided a dissimilar control. Movements showed greater attraction toward the competing object before reaching the correct target.^[ref]

The authors used linear interpolation to compare trajectories at 101 normalized time positions. That procedure preserves relative movement progression while changing its time scale. Display geometry and movement instructions remain part of the measurement; a curve alone is not a uniquely identified mental state.