Show me How You Use Your Mouse and I Tell You How You Feel? Sensing Affect With the Computer Mouse

Computer mouse tracking is a simple and cost-efficient way to gather continuous behavioral data. As theory suggests a relationship between affect and sensorimotor processes, the computer mouse might be usable for affect sensing. However, the processes underlying a connection between mouse usage and affect are complex, hitherto empirical evidence is ambiguous, and the research area lacks longitudinal studies. The present work brings forward a longitudinal field study in which 179 participants hourly self-reported their affect while their mouse usage was tracked both during their self-directed, contextless as well as task-bound computer use over the course of 14 days, resulting in a dataset comprising 10,760 instances of data collection. Extensive statistical analysis using null hypothesis significance testing and machine learning reveal weak and sporadic relationships between mouse usage and longitudinal self-reported affect at best. The results of this study challenge the use of computer mouse tracking for longitudinal affect sensing and point to a necessity for more research.