Selected Research Areas

People usually focus their eyes on objects, which may provide important information (Yarbus 1967). Moving attention depends on task requirements (Folk, Remington, and Johnston 1992; Hayhoe and Ballard 2005), though some elements have a higher likelihood of capturing attention, especially elements with greater biological meaning, such as movements (Hillstrom and Yantis 1994), distinctive or salient objects (Theeuwes 1994; Yarbus 1967), emotional stimuli (Calvo and Lang 2004), and people's faces (Bruce et al. 1992; Young 1998). Human faces are processed and recognized faster and more accurately than any other visual stimuli (Bruce and Young 1986), and evidence suggests that face processing is enhanced if the face has emotional meaning (Öhman, Lundqvist, and Esteves 2001; Ohme 2003, 2007).

Emotional material captures attention much faster and holds it longer than neutral material (Calvo and Lang 2004; Nummenmaa, Hyönä, and Calvo 2006). However, there is no full agreement about the impact of the emotional valence of the stimuli on visual attention. Some researchers hypothesize that only negative stimuli with high evolutionary meaning can facilitate cognitive processing, because they are noticed faster even in a highly distracting environment (Calvo and Lang 2004; Öhman, Flykt, and Esteves 2001). However most evidence suggests that both negative and positive stimuli can capture and hold attention (Kolańczyk 2004; Nummenmaa, Hyönä, and Calvo 2006; for a review, see Vuilleumier 2005).

The eye-tracker technique is a well-validated tool to identify the flow of visual attention and its strongest attractors (Chanon et al. 2007; Hollingworth and Henderson 2002). Recordings from eye-tracker studies can reveal the hierarchy of perceptions of stimulus material (i.e., which elements are perceived earlier, which later, and which remain peripheral or consciously unnoticed) and the contact time (i.e., how long each element is attended to). With its ease of application, eye tracking has been used in various research areas, such as when cognitive psychologists gain data about the timing of ocular and attentional movements (Chanon et al. 2007; Posner 1980), synchronization and desynchronization in binocular eye movements (Altmann and Kamide 2009), and cognitive speed and working memory (Mitchell, Macrae, and Glichrist 2002). It provides valuable information on visual perception, such as the identification and categorization of visual objects (Hollingworth and Henderson 2002) or the ability to assess distances to and between objects (Currie et al. 2000). Cognitive linguistics studies use eye tracking to gain an understanding of the processes of reading and language comprehension, as well as the clarity of a written message (Gonzalez-Marquez et al. 2005). Eye trackers are also used in human-computer interfaces to aid disabled or paralyzed people (Abbot 2006). In psychiatry, eye tracking has advanced research in autism (Dapretto et al. 2006) and schizophrenia (Lezenweger and Gold 2000). Finally, eye tracking found its way to commercial applications, including web usability, advertising, package and product design, automotive engineering, movies, gaming, and shelf and shop testing (Brasel and Gips 2008).

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 759