Distance Matters: Spatial Contiguity Effects as Trade-Off between Gaze Switches and Memory Load

Use of minimal working memory in visual comparison: An eye-tracking study

In this study, we used a novel application of the previous paradigm provided by Pomplun to examine the eye movement strategies of using minimal working memory in visual comparison. This paradigm includes two tasks: one is a free comparison and the other is a single sequential comparison. In the free comparison, participants can freely view two horizontally presented stimuli until they judge whether the two stimuli are the same or not. In the single sequential comparison, participants can only view the left-side stimuli one time, and when their eyes cross the invisible boundary at the center of the screen, the left-side stimuli disappear and the right-side stimuli appear. Participants need to judge whether the right-side stimuli are the same as the disappeared left-side stimuli. Eye movement data showed significant differences between the single sequential comparison and free comparison tasks that suggests the use of minimal working memory in free comparison. Moreover, when the number of items was more than three, an average of 2.87 items would be processed in each view sequence. Participants also used the alternating left-right reference strategy that made the shortest scan path with the use of minimal working memory. The typical eye movement strategy in visual comparison and its theoretical significance were discussed.

Individual differences in selective attention and engagement shape students’ learning from visual cues and instructor presence during online lessons

Although some researchers recommend minimizing extraneous visual information in multimedia lessons, others have demonstrated that features such as visual cues and instructor videos can enhance learning. However, variability in selective attention skills may influence students’ ability to benefit from these additional features. This study investigated links between college students’ selective attention skills and their learning from video lessons that varied in the use of visual cues and the instructor video. Learning outcomes depended on both the visual features available and students’ effort and selective attention skills. Among students who reported increased effort during the lessons, those with more efficient selective attention benefited most when a single additional feature (i.e., either visual cues or the instructor video) was used. All students, regardless of attention skills, benefited when both visual cues and the instructor were combined. These findings suggest that learning during multimedia lessons may depend on the visual features of the lessons and the student’s effort and attention skills.

How Experts Adapt Their Gaze Behavior When Modeling a Task to Novices

Domain experts regularly teach novice students how to perform a task. This often requires them to adjust their behavior to the less knowledgeable audience and, hence, to behave in a more didactic manner. Eye movement modeling examples (EMMEs) are a contemporary educational tool for displaying experts’ (natural or didactic) problem‐solving behavior as well as their eye movements to learners. While research on expert‐novice communication mainly focused on experts’ changes in explicit, verbal communication behavior, it is as yet unclear whether and how exactly experts adjust their nonverbal behavior. This study first investigated whether and how experts change their eye movements and mouse clicks (that are displayed in EMMEs) when they perform a task naturally versus teach a task didactically. Programming experts and novices initially debugged short computer codes in a natural manner. We first characterized experts’ natural problem‐solving behavior by contrasting it with that of novices. Then, we explored the changes in experts’ behavior when being subsequently instructed to model their task solution didactically. Experts became more similar to novices on measures associated with experts’ automatized processes (i.e., shorter fixation durations, fewer transitions between code and output per click on the run button when behaving didactically). This adaptation might make it easier for novices to follow or imitate the expert behavior. In contrast, experts became less similar to novices for measures associated with more strategic behavior (i.e., code reading linearity, clicks on run button) when behaving didactically.

Representation control increases task efficiency in complex graphical representations

In complex graphical representations, the relevant information for a specific task is often distributed across multiple spatial locations. In such situations, understanding the representation requires internal transformation processes in order to extract the relevant information. However, digital technology enables observers to alter the spatial arrangement of depicted information and therefore to offload the transformation processes. The objective of this study was to investigate the use of such a representation control (i.e. the users' option to decide how information should be displayed) in order to accomplish an information extraction task in terms of solution time and accuracy. In the representation control condition, the participants were allowed to reorganize the graphical representation and reduce information density. In the control condition, no interactive features were offered. We observed that participants in the representation control condition solved tasks that required reorganization of the maps faster and more accurate than participants without representation control. The present findings demonstrate how processes of cognitive offloading, spatial contiguity, and information coherence interact in knowledge media intended for broad and diverse groups of recipients.

Allocation of cognitive resources in comparative visual search--individual and task dependent effects

Behaviors recruit multiple, mutually substitutable types of cognitive resources (e.g., data acquisition and memorization in comparative visual search), and the allocation of resources is performed in a cost-optimizing way. If costs associated with each type of resource are manipulated, e.g., by varying the complexity of the items studied or the visual separation of the arrays to be compared, according adjustments of resource allocation ("trade-offs") have been demonstrated. Using between-subject designs, previous studies showed overall trade-off behavior but neglected inter-individual variability of trade-off behavior. Here, we present a simplified paradigm for comparative visual search in which gaze-measurements are replaced by switching of a visual mask covering one stimulus array at a time. This paradigm allows for a full within-subject design. While overall trade-off curves could be reproduced, we found that each subject used a specific trade-off strategy which differ substantially between subjects. Still, task-dependent adjustment of resource allocation can be demonstrated but accounts only for a minor part of the overall trade-off range. In addition, we show that the individual trade-offs were adjusted in an unconscious and rather intuitive way, enabling a robust manifestation of the selected strategy space.

Facilitating the comparison of multiple visual items on screen: the example of electronic architectural plan correction

This paper describes two experiments designed to (1) ascertain whether the way in which architectural plans are displayed on a computer screen influences the quality of their correction by humans, and (2) identify the visual exploration strategies adopted in this type of task. Results of the first "spot the difference" experiment showed that superimposing the plans yielded better error correction performances than displaying them side by side. Furthermore, a sequential display mode, where the second plan only gradually appeared on the screen, improved error search effectiveness. In the second experiment, eye movement recordings revealed that superimposition increased plan comparison efficiency by making it easier to establish coreference between the two sources of information. The improvement in effectiveness in the sequential condition was shown to be linked to the attentional guidance afforded by this display mode, which helped users to make a more thorough exploration of the plans.