Grouping individuals according to a set of measured characteristics, or profiling, is frequently used in describing, understanding, and acting on a phenomenon. The advent of computer-based assessment offers new possibilities for profiling writing because aspects can be captured that were not heretofore observable. We explored whether writing…

"Biometrics" are physical or behavioral human characteristics that can be used to identify a person. It is widely known that keystroke or typing dynamics for short, fixed texts (e.g., passwords) could serve as a behavioral biometric. In this study, we investigate whether keystroke data from essay responses can lead to a reliable…

This study compared gender groups on the processes used in writing essays in an online assessment. Middle-school students from four grades responded to essays in two persuasive subgenres, argumentation and policy recommendation. Writing processes were inferred from four indicators extracted from students' keystroke logs. In comparison to males, on…