Detecting Cognitive Signatures in Typing Behavior for Non-Intrusive Authorship Verification

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Condrey, David
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866918519742922752
author Condrey, David
author_facet Condrey, David
contents The proliferation of AI-generated text has intensified the need for reliable authorship verification, yet current output-based methods are increasingly unreliable. We observe that the ordinary typing interface captures rich cognitive signatures, measurable patterns in keystroke timing that reflect the planning, translating, and revising stages of genuine composition. Drawing on large-scale keystroke datasets comprising over 136 million events, we define the Cognitive Load Correlation (CLC) and show it distinguishes genuine composition from mechanical transcription. We present a non-intrusive verification framework that operates within existing writing interfaces, collecting only timing metadata to preserve privacy. Our analytical evaluation estimates 85 to 95 percent discrimination accuracy under stated assumptions, while limiting biometric leakage via evidence quantization. We analyze the adversarial robustness of cognitive signatures, showing they resist timing-forgery attacks that defeat motor-level authentication because the cognitive channel is entangled with semantic content. We conclude that reframing authorship verification as a human-computer interaction problem provides a privacy-preserving alternative to invasive surveillance.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_00177
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Detecting Cognitive Signatures in Typing Behavior for Non-Intrusive Authorship Verification
Condrey, David
Cryptography and Security
Human-Computer Interaction
Machine Learning
68T10, 91E45, 68U35
K.6.5; H.5.2; I.5.4
The proliferation of AI-generated text has intensified the need for reliable authorship verification, yet current output-based methods are increasingly unreliable. We observe that the ordinary typing interface captures rich cognitive signatures, measurable patterns in keystroke timing that reflect the planning, translating, and revising stages of genuine composition. Drawing on large-scale keystroke datasets comprising over 136 million events, we define the Cognitive Load Correlation (CLC) and show it distinguishes genuine composition from mechanical transcription. We present a non-intrusive verification framework that operates within existing writing interfaces, collecting only timing metadata to preserve privacy. Our analytical evaluation estimates 85 to 95 percent discrimination accuracy under stated assumptions, while limiting biometric leakage via evidence quantization. We analyze the adversarial robustness of cognitive signatures, showing they resist timing-forgery attacks that defeat motor-level authentication because the cognitive channel is entangled with semantic content. We conclude that reframing authorship verification as a human-computer interaction problem provides a privacy-preserving alternative to invasive surveillance.
title Detecting Cognitive Signatures in Typing Behavior for Non-Intrusive Authorship Verification
topic Cryptography and Security
Human-Computer Interaction
Machine Learning
68T10, 91E45, 68U35
K.6.5; H.5.2; I.5.4
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.00177