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Eye Tracking in Visual Search Experiments

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Spatial Learning and Attention Guidance

Part of the book series: Neuromethods ((NM,volume 151))

Abstract

Over the last 30 years, eye tracking has grown in popularity as a method to understand attention during visual search, principally because it provides a means to characterize the spatiotemporal properties of selective operations across a trial. In the present chapter, we review the motivations, methods, and measures for using eye tracking in visual search experiments. This includes a discussion of the advantages (and some disadvantages) of eye tracking data as a measure spatial attention, compared with more traditional reaction time paradigms. In addition, we discuss stimulus and design considerations for implementing experiments of this type. Finally, we will discuss the major measures that can be extracted from an eye tracking record and discuss the inferences that each allow. In the course of this discussion, we address both experiments using abstract arrays and experiments using real-world scene stimuli.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Note that instructions are rarely sufficient to ensure that participants do not make eye movements. Thus, even if the goal is to eliminate eye movements, gaze still needs to be monitored. Ideally, an eye tracker can be used, but there is another option. In covert attentions studies, we often use a simple video camera to display a large image of one of the eyes, and the experimenter monitors this image throughout the experiment (a human eye tracker). Movements of the eyes are quite easy to observe, and the experimenter both notes trials with eye movements and reminds the participant, when an eye movement is observed, to keep gaze focused on the relevant reference point. With appropriate, well-timed feedback of this sort, most participants quickly learn how to keep gaze focused centrally and rarely make eye movements after an initial practice session.

  2. 2.

    Note that a present/absent design is not always ideal for an eye tracking study, as the mere presence or absence of the target can often be determined without foveation.

  3. 3.

    Note, however, that in this example experiment, if we were to manipulate photographic images, we would need to use an object image from a different source and then paste and integrate it into both the plausible and implausible locations within the experimental scene; this would control our two conditions for artifacts generated by the process of adding an object to a particular scene location.

  4. 4.

    An alternative is to make trial initiation contingent on central fixation.

  5. 5.

    It is possible that, on a small proportion of trials, a participant fixates the target, fails to recognize it at such, leaves the target region to fixate other objects, and returns only later during search, leading to the manual response. Thus, elapsed time to target fixation should be the time until the entry that immediately precedes the response and not necessarily the elapsed time to the very first entry.

  6. 6.

    An alternative would be to consider each entry and exit from an object as a single event, collapsing across multiple fixations between entry and exit.

  7. 7.

    It can also be useful to examine saccade latency in this context. For trials without oculomotor capture, several studies have observed that saccades directed to the target were delayed when a critical distractor was present versus when it was not, indicating that the programming of the saccade required additional time to resolve the competition between the salient distractor and the target.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA

    Andrew Hollingworth & Brett Bahle

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  1. Andrew Hollingworth
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  2. Brett Bahle
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrew Hollingworth .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Psychology, Otto-von-Guericke-University-Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

    Stefan Pollmann

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Hollingworth, A., Bahle, B. (2019). Eye Tracking in Visual Search Experiments. In: Pollmann, S. (eds) Spatial Learning and Attention Guidance. Neuromethods, vol 151. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/7657_2019_30

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/7657_2019_30

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-9947-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-9948-4

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