scholarly journals Comparing Online Webcam- and Laboratory-Based Eye-Tracking for the Assessment of Infants’ Audio-Visual Synchrony Perception

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Bánki ◽  
Martina de Eccher ◽  
Lilith Falschlehner ◽  
Stefanie Hoehl ◽  
Gabriela Markova

Online data collection with infants raises special opportunities and challenges for developmental research. One of the most prevalent methods in infancy research is eye-tracking, which has been widely applied in laboratory settings to assess cognitive development. Technological advances now allow conducting eye-tracking online with various populations, including infants. However, the accuracy and reliability of online infant eye-tracking remain to be comprehensively evaluated. No research to date has directly compared webcam-based and in-lab eye-tracking data from infants, similarly to data from adults. The present study provides a direct comparison of in-lab and webcam-based eye-tracking data from infants who completed an identical looking time paradigm in two different settings (in the laboratory or online at home). We assessed 4-6-month-old infants (n = 38) in an eye-tracking task that measured the detection of audio-visual asynchrony. Webcam-based and in-lab eye-tracking data were compared on eye-tracking and video data quality, infants’ viewing behavior, and experimental effects. Results revealed no differences between the in-lab and online setting in the frequency of technical issues and participant attrition rates. Video data quality was comparable between settings in terms of completeness and brightness, despite lower frame rate and resolution online. Eye-tracking data quality was higher in the laboratory than online, except in case of relative sample loss. Gaze data quantity recorded by eye-tracking was significantly lower than by video in both settings. In valid trials, eye-tracking and video data captured infants’ viewing behavior uniformly, irrespective of setting. Despite the common challenges of infant eye-tracking across experimental settings, our results point toward the necessity to further improve the precision of online eye-tracking with infants. Taken together, online eye-tracking is a promising tool to assess infants’ gaze behavior but requires careful data quality control. The demographic composition of both samples differed from the generic population on caregiver education: our samples comprised caregivers with higher-than-average education levels, challenging the notion that online studies will per se reach more diverse populations.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Schneegans ◽  
Matthew D. Bachman ◽  
Scott A. Huettel ◽  
Hauke Heekeren

Recent developments of open-source online eye-tracking algorithms suggests that they may be ready for use in online studies, thereby overcoming the limitations of in-lab eye-tracking studies. However, to date there have been limited tests of the efficacy of online eye-tracking for decision-making and cognitive psychology. In this online study, we explore the potential and the limitations of online eye-tracking tools for decision-making research using the webcam-based open-source library Webgazer (Papoutsaki et al., 2016). Our study had two aims. For our first aim we assessed different variables that might affect the quality of eye-tracking data. In our experiment (N = 210) we measured a within-subjects variable of adding a provisional chin rest and a between-subjects variable of corrected vs uncorrected vision. Contrary to our hypotheses, we found that the chin rest had a negative effect on data quality. In accordance with out hypotheses, we found lower quality data in participants who wore glasses. Other influence factors are discussed, such as the frame rate. For our second aim (N = 44) we attempted to replicate a decision-making paradigm where eye-tracking data was acquired using offline means (Amasino et al., 2019). We found some relations between choice behavior and eye-tracking measures, such as the last fixation and the distribution of gaze points at the moment right before the choice. However, several effects could not be reproduced, such as the overall distribution of gaze points or dynamic search strategies. Therefore, our hypotheses only find partial evidence. This study gives practical insights for the feasibility of online eye-tacking for decision making research as well as researchers from other disciplines.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa-Marie Vortmann ◽  
Jannes Knychalla ◽  
Sonja Annerer-Walcher ◽  
Mathias Benedek ◽  
Felix Putze

It has been shown that conclusions about the human mental state can be drawn from eye gaze behavior by several previous studies. For this reason, eye tracking recordings are suitable as input data for attentional state classifiers. In current state-of-the-art studies, the extracted eye tracking feature set usually consists of descriptive statistics about specific eye movement characteristics (i.e., fixations, saccades, blinks, vergence, and pupil dilation). We suggest an Imaging Time Series approach for eye tracking data followed by classification using a convolutional neural net to improve the classification accuracy. We compared multiple algorithms that used the one-dimensional statistical summary feature set as input with two different implementations of the newly suggested method for three different data sets that target different aspects of attention. The results show that our two-dimensional image features with the convolutional neural net outperform the classical classifiers for most analyses, especially regarding generalization over participants and tasks. We conclude that current attentional state classifiers that are based on eye tracking can be optimized by adjusting the feature set while requiring less feature engineering and our future work will focus on a more detailed and suited investigation of this approach for other scenarios and data sets.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Vehlen ◽  
Ines Spenthof ◽  
Daniel Tönsing ◽  
Markus Heinrichs ◽  
Gregor Domes

AbstractMany eye tracking studies use facial stimuli presented on a display to investigate attentional processing of social stimuli. To introduce a more realistic approach that allows interaction between two real people, we evaluated a new eye tracking setup in three independent studies in terms of data quality, short-term reliability and feasibility. Study 1 measured the robustness, precision and accuracy for calibration stimuli compared to a classical display-based setup. Study 2 used the identical measures with an independent study sample to compare the data quality for a photograph of a face (2D) and the face of the real person (3D). Study 3 evaluated data quality over the course of a real face-to-face conversation and examined the gaze behavior on the facial features of the conversation partner. Study 1 provides evidence that quality indices for the scene-based setup were comparable to those of a classical display-based setup. Average accuracy was better than 0.4° visual angle. Study 2 demonstrates that eye tracking quality is sufficient for 3D stimuli and robust against short interruptions without re-calibration. Study 3 confirms the long-term stability of tracking accuracy during a face-to-face interaction and demonstrates typical gaze patterns for facial features. Thus, the eye tracking setup presented here seems feasible for studying gaze behavior in dyadic face-to-face interactions. Eye tracking data obtained with this setup achieves an accuracy that is sufficient for investigating behavior such as eye contact in social interactions in a range of populations including clinical conditions, such as autism spectrum and social phobia.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (8) ◽  
pp. e0254867
Author(s):  
Jennifer Kee ◽  
Melinda Knuth ◽  
Joanna N. Lahey ◽  
Marco A. Palma

Eye-tracking is becoming an increasingly popular tool for understanding the underlying behavior driving human decisions. However, an important unanswered methodological question is whether the use of an eye-tracking device itself induces changes in participants’ behavior. We study this question using eight popular games in experimental economics chosen for their varying levels of theorized susceptibility to social desirability bias. We implement a simple between-subject design where participants are randomly assigned to either a control or an eye-tracking treatment. In seven of the eight games, eye-tracking did not produce different outcomes. In the Holt and Laury risk assessment (HL), subjects with multiple calibration attempts demonstrated more risk averse behavior in eye-tracking conditions. However, this effect only appeared during the first five (of ten) rounds. Because calibration difficulty is correlated with eye-tracking data quality, the standard practice of removing participants with low eye-tracking data quality resulted in no difference between the treatment and control groups in HL. Our results suggest that experiments may incorporate eye-tracking equipment without inducing changes in the economic behavior of participants, particularly after observations with low quality eye-tracking data are removed.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. e0251674
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Busey ◽  
Nicholas Heise ◽  
R. Austin Hicklin ◽  
Bradford T. Ulery ◽  
JoAnn Buscaglia

Latent fingerprint examiners sometimes come to different conclusions when comparing fingerprints, and eye-gaze behavior may help explain these outcomes. missed identifications (missed IDs) are inconclusive, exclusion, or No Value determinations reached when the consensus of other examiners is an identification. To determine the relation between examiner behavior and missed IDs, we collected eye-gaze data from 121 latent print examiners as they completed a total 1444 difficult (latent-exemplar) comparisons. We extracted metrics from the gaze data that serve as proxies for underlying perceptual and cognitive capacities. We used these metrics to characterize potential mechanisms of missed IDs: Cursory Comparison and Mislocalization. We find that missed IDs are associated with shorter comparison times, fewer regions visited, and fewer attempted correspondences between the compared images. Latent print comparisons resulting in erroneous exclusions (a subset of missed IDs) are also more likely to have fixations in different regions and less accurate correspondence attempts than those comparisons resulting in identifications. We also use our derived metrics to describe one atypical examiner who made six erroneous identifications, four of which were on comparisons intended to be straightforward exclusions. The present work helps identify the degree to which missed IDs can be explained using eye-gaze behavior, and the extent to which missed IDs depend on cognitive and decision-making factors outside the domain of eye-tracking methodologies.


Infancy ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 601-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roy S. Hessels ◽  
Richard Andersson ◽  
Ignace T. C. Hooge ◽  
Marcus Nyström ◽  
Chantal Kemner

2020 ◽  
Vol 245 ◽  
pp. 01027
Author(s):  
Piotr Konopka ◽  
Barthélémy von Haller

The ALICE Experiment at CERN LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is undertaking a major upgrade during LHC Long Shutdown 2 in 2019–2021. The raw data input from the ALICE detectors will then increase a hundredfold, up to 3.5 TB/s. In order to cope with such a large amount of data, a new online-offline computing system, called O2, will be deployed. One of the key software components of the O2 system will be the data Quality Control (QC) that replaces the existing online Data Quality Monitoring and offline Quality Assurance. It involves the gathering, the analysis by user-defined algorithms and the visualization of monitored data, in both the synchronous and asynchronous parts of the O2 system. This paper presents the architecture and design, as well as the latest and upcoming features, of the ALICE O2 QC. The results of the extensive benchmarks which have been carried out for each component of the system are later summarized. Finally, the adoption of this tool amongst the ALICE Collaboration and the measures taken to develop, in synergy with their respective teams, efficient monitoring modules for the detectors, are discussed.


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