As you swipe on your smartphone throughout the day, checking your email or buying something online, you're leaving behind clues about how your brain makes decisions and new research out of the University of Alberta shows that these movements could be valuable for studying human behaviour.
The phrase "moving is thinking" has been the driving force behind Craig Chapman's research in the Actions in Complex Environments Laboratory (ACELab) for a decade. "We can actually understand a lot of what's going on inside someone's head by carefully measuring what's going on outside their head," explains Chapman, an associate professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation.
In a recent study, Chapman and his collaborators in the Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute proved that everyday devices like smartphones and tablets could collect the same kind of movement information as specialized lab equipment and mouse-tracking tests. It's a finding that could revolutionize research in this field instead of bringing dozens of study participants into a lab, researchers could gather tens of thousands of insights virtually.
