The effects of task complexity on FL learners’ online writing behaviors and the correlated underlying cognitive processes

Document Type : Original Article

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Abstract

The main target of the current study was to discover whether task complexity has any
effect on the online behaviors of FL writers and the correlated cognitive processes
underlying them. The participants were chosen after finishing their simple or complex
essay tasks; they reached 146 participants, and four of them were chosen to be
involved in spur callback. The keystroke logging software was used to record the
writing behaviors of the participants. The presence of the content support was
compared to the absence of task complexity. The results revealed that the presence of
content support increased linguistic complexity, but at the same time there was less
pausing and more revision. The absence of content support led to more repetition in
pauses and the language was less developed in revisions.

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