Web-based crowdsourced version of the sequential finger tapping task on Amazon Mechanical Turk¶

Design · All designs
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 2 studies (2 causal), q3 · 1 of 2 report an effect size

Description¶

A web-based implementation of the well-characterized sequential finger tapping task (5-item keypress sequence, 4-1-3-2-4, with the nondominant left hand) programmed in Psytoolkit, administered on Amazon Mechanical Turk with participants using their own computers. It proved "useful to study human motor learning dynamics at a large scale", enabling samples of hundreds of participants (e.g., N = 389) with data collection averaging 16 h and 26 min per experiment, and replicated the in-lab learning-curve shape and microdynamics.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

Participants with >95% MTurk approval rate, US location, right-handedness; clear definitions of correct adherence to instructions for post-hoc data quality checks

Constraints¶

A proportion of participants did not follow instructions and had to be excluded; variability is higher than in-lab at comparable sample sizes; designs requiring prolonged task durations or longitudinal measurements need extra care; groups must be properly randomized given rapid changes in worker pool composition

Target Learners¶

adult MTurk workers learning a motor sequence

Learning Goals¶

measurement of microscale motor skill learning dynamics in early acquisition

Claims¶

Performance improvements during early motor skill learning occur predominantly during short rest periods (micro-offline gains), replicated in a large crowdsourced sample and in a laboratory study [+S]

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

Marlene Bönstrup, Iñaki Iturrate, Martin N. Hebart, Nitzan Censor and Leonardo G. Cohen. (2020). Mechanisms of offline motor learning at a microscale of seconds in large-scale crowdsourced data. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-020-0066-9

Page metadata

Field	Value
`type`	`design`
`id`	`web-based-crowdsourced-finger-tapping-task`
`title`	`Web-based crowdsourced version of the sequential finger tapping task on Amazon Mechanical Turk`
`description`	`A web-based implementation of the well-characterized sequential finger tapping task (5-item keypress sequence, 4-1-3-2-4, with the nondominant left hand) programmed in Psytoolkit, administered on Amazon Mechanical Tur...`
`status`	`review`
`generated`	by `process:settle-candidates` on `2026-10-26`
`trust`	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
`sources`	1 — `marlene-bönstrup-2020`

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