Eye tracking research
It is easy to determine from these records which elements attract the observer's eye (and, consequently, his thought), in what order, and how often." "The observer's attention is frequently drawn to elements which do not give important information but which, in his opinion, may do so. Eye movement reflects the human thought processes so the observer's thought may be followed to some extent from records of eye movement (the thought accompanying the examination of the particular object). "Records of eye movements show that the observer's attention is usually held only by certain elements of the picture. This study by Yarbus (1967) harvtxt error: no target: CITEREFYarbus1967 ( help) is often referred to as evidence on how the task given to a person influences his or her eye movement. show conclusively that the character of the eye movement is either completely independent of or only very slightly dependent on the material of the picture and how it was made, provided that it is flat or nearly flat." The cyclical pattern in the examination of pictures "is dependent on not only what is shown on the picture, but also the problem facing the observer and the information that he hopes to gain from the picture." He also wrote about the relation between fixations and interest: He showed that the task given to a subject has a very large influence on the subject's eye movement. In the 1950s, Alfred L. Yarbus performed eye tracking research, and his 1967 book is often quoted. Buswell made systematic studies into reading and picture viewing. The first non-intrusive eye-trackers were built by Guy Thomas Buswell in Chicago, using beams of light that were reflected on the eye, then recording on film. Huey studied and quantified regressions (only a small proportion of saccades are regressions), and he showed that some words in a sentence are not fixated. The lens was connected to an aluminum pointer that moved in response to the movement of the eye. The eyes never move smoothly over still text.Įdmund Huey built an early eye tracker, using a sort of contact lens with a hole for the pupil. This is the typical pattern of eye movement during reading. An example of fixations and saccades over text.