ACT-PRO action protocol analyzer: A tool for analyzing discrete action protocols

This article presents a top-down approach for analyzing sequential events i n behavioral data. Analysis of behavioral sequential data often entails ide ntifying patterns specified by the researchers. Algorithms were developed a nd applied to analyze a kind of behavioral data, called discrete action pro tocol data. Discrete action protocols consist of discrete user actions, suc h as mouse clicks and keypresses. Unfortunately, the process of analyzing t he huge volume of actions (typically, > 10(5)) is very labor intensive. To facilitate this process, we developed an action protocol analyzer (ACT-PRO) that provides two levels of pattern matching. Level one uses formal gramma rs to identify sequential patterns. Level two matches these patterns to a h ierarchical structure. ACT-PRO can be used to determine how well data fit t he patterns specified by an experimenter. Complementarily, it can be used t o focus an experimenter's attention on data that do not fit the prespecifie d patterns.