A cross-cultural study showing deficits in gaze-language coordination during rapid automatized naming among individuals with ASD

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their first-degree relatives demonstrate automaticity deficits reflected in reduced eye-voice coordination during rapid automatized naming (RAN), suggesting that RAN deficits may be a genetically meaningful marker of ASD language-related impairments. This study investigated whether RAN deficits in ASD extend to a language typologically distinct from English. Participants included 23 Cantonese-speaking individuals with ASD and 39 controls from Hong Kong (HK), and age- and IQ-comparable groups of previously-studied English-speaking individuals with ASD (n = 45) and controls (n = 44) from the US. Participants completed RAN on an eye tracker. Analyses examined naming time, error rate, measures of eye movement reflecting language automaticity, including eye-voice span (EVS; location of eyes versus the named item) and refixations. The HK-ASD group exhibited longer naming times and more refixations than HK-Controls, in a pattern similar to that observed in the US-ASD group. Cultural effects revealed that both HK groups showed longer EVS and more fixations than US groups. Naming time and refixation differences may be ASD-specific impairments spanning cultures/languages, whereas EVS and fixation frequency may be more variably impacted. A potential underlying mechanism of visual “stickiness” may be contributing to this breakdown in language automaticity in ASD.

Show products or show people: an eye-tracking study of visual branding strategy on Instagram

Purpose This paper aims to examine the effects of visual themes and view perspectives on users’ visual attention to brand posts on Instagram. The impact of visual attention on brand attitude and recognition is also explored. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a 4 (visual themes: customer-centric, employee-centric, product-centric and symbolic visuals) × 2 (view perspectives: first-person view vs third-person view) between-subject factorial eye-tracking experiment to explore their effects on viewers’ visual attention (fixation frequency and fixation duration), attitude toward the brand and brand recognition. Findings Results showed that, under a first-person view, participants spent the longest time viewing customer-centric images and paid the most attention to product-centric and customer-centric images. For images in the third-person view, product-centric images received the longest fixation duration and highest fixation frequency. Customer-centric image and product-centric image generated significantly higher amount of fixation duration and fixation frequency than the symbolic image, regardless of view perspective. Brand recognition was positively influenced by fixation frequency but not by fixation duration. Originality/value This study is an extended application of Aaker’s (1996) brand identity planning model in visual branding on Instagram. As the findings indicated, the effective use of visual strategies could lead to more positive responses toward the brand. By understanding how optical elements stimulate visual branding processing, marketing professionals will be able to improve information designing skills in visual-based social media platforms (such as Instagram).

Investigation of Weighted Scales for Measuring Visual Fatigue in Screen Tasks

<p>The “screening” trend of modern society has been progressively increasing burden on human visual system, and visual fatigue problems are attracting growing attention. Nowadays, subjective testing is the most widely used measurement for visual fatigue; however, the low accuracy of subjective testing has been hindering its further development. Motivated by the idea of weighted scoring, this study investigated the effects of two weighted scales for measuring visual fatigue in screening tasks. Specifically, a questionnaire with 10 items collected from classic scales was performed with an eye-tracking testing in two typical screen visual fatigue experiments, i.e., searching and watching. Then the subjective scores were factor-analyzed into three subscales before attempting linear regressions, which set the dependent to two previously validated eye-tracking parameters, i.e., fixation frequency or saccade amplitude. Finally two weighted scales were obtained in assessing visual fatigue of varying levels, which demonstrated the potential to improve testing accuracy of visual fatigue with the calibration of objective measurement.</p>

Investigation of Weighted Scales for Measuring Visual Fatigue in Screen Tasks

<p>The “screening” trend of modern society has been progressively increasing burden on human visual system, and visual fatigue problems are attracting growing attention. Nowadays, subjective testing is the most widely used measurement for visual fatigue; however, the low accuracy of subjective testing has been hindering its further development. Motivated by the idea of weighted scoring, this study investigated the effects of two weighted scales for measuring visual fatigue in screening tasks. Specifically, a questionnaire with 10 items collected from classic scales was performed with an eye-tracking testing in two typical screen visual fatigue experiments, i.e., searching and watching. Then the subjective scores were factor-analyzed into three subscales before attempting linear regressions, which set the dependent to two previously validated eye-tracking parameters, i.e., fixation frequency or saccade amplitude. Finally two weighted scales were obtained in assessing visual fatigue of varying levels, which demonstrated the potential to improve testing accuracy of visual fatigue with the calibration of objective measurement.</p>

The influence of expertise and experimental paradigms on the visual behavior of tennis athletes in returning a serve

To return a serve, one must pick up information from the server’s kinematics and anticipate the ball trajectory. Although the perceptual requirements are important, the literature diverges in terms of the differences between experts and novices as well as the importance of the experimental paradigm (in-situ vs. video-based) for the results. This study aimed to address both concerns. We compared experts’ (n=7, 20.6±1.1 year of age) and novices’ (n=7, 20.0±0.4 years of age) visual pattern when returning a serve (Experiment 1) and the influence of the experimental paradigm in experts (Experiment 2). Experts fixated more and longer the upper body and ball, while novices showed a more distributed pattern and with longer fixations outside of the server’s body. Also, the pattern was different when comparing in-situ and laboratory settings, differing mainly in fixation frequency. The influence of expertise was observed in qualitative (relative) and quantitative (absolute) measures of visual behavior with the setting having an important influence. Thus, studies should be as close to the actual situation if trying to understand experts’ behavior.

Mind Mapping Training’s Effects on Reading Ability: Detection Based on Eye Tracking Sensors

As a reading comprehension strategy, mind mapping has a positive influence on the development of students’ reading ability. However, how mind mapping affects reading ability has not been well documented. In this study, we used eye tracking sensors to explore mind mapping’s effects on reading ability. The participants were foreign language learning university students in Dalian city, China. One group received foreign language reading teaching integrated with mind mapping training (experimental group), and the other group received regular foreign language reading teaching (control group). We analyzed eye movement indicators, including fixation-related indicators (number of fixations, fixation frequency, and mean fixation duration), regression count, saccade amplitude, and pupil diameter. In addition, the analysis of heat maps and fixation trajectory maps, which are specific tool for visualization of eye movement data and intuitive analysis of reading process, were explained. The results show that the number of fixations, fixation frequency, mean fixation duration, and regression count in the experimental group were all lower than in the control group, and the pupil diameter was larger than in the control group. The heat map and fixation trajectory map show convergence, mostly focusing on the position of keywords and key sentences, with relatively large saccade amplitude and more information obtained by one gaze. Moreover, they had a higher skipping reading rate, which enhanced reading speed to obtain information accurately and quickly. These empirical results indicate that mind mapping training was an effective method for improving students’ reading ability.

Visual exploration at higher fixation frequency increases subsequent memory recall

Only a small proportion of what we see can later be recalled. Up to date it is unknown in how far differences in visual exploration during encoding affect the strength of episodic memories. Here, we identified individual gaze characteristics by analyzing eye tracking data in a picture encoding task performed by 967 healthy subjects during fMRI. We found a positive correlation between fixation frequency during visual exploration and subsequent free recall performance. Brain imaging results showed a positive correlation of fixation frequency with activations in regions related to vision and memory, including the medial temporal lobe. To investigate if higher fixation frequency is causally linked to better memory, we experimentally manipulated visual exploration patterns in an independent population of 64 subjects. Doubling the number of fixations within a given exploration time increased subsequent free recall performance by 19%. Our findings provide evidence for a causal relationship between fixation frequency and episodic memory for visual information.

The Investigation of Simultaneous EEG and Eye Tracking Characteristics During Fixation Task in Mild Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that occurs many years before the first clinical symptoms. Finding more exact, significant, and valuable criteria or indices for the diagnosis of the mild form of Alzheimer’s disease is very important for clinical and research purposes. Electroencephalography (EEG) and eye tracking biomarkers would provide noninvasive tools for the early detection of AD. Due to the advantages of EEG and eye tracking, in this study, we employed them simultaneously to conduct research on the mild AD. For this purpose, 19 patients with mild AD were compared with 19 gender- and age-matched normal subjects who did not have any history of cognitive or neurological disorders. EEG and eye-tracking data were concurrently collected in both groups in a fixation task. Our results revealed that the total fixation duration was significantly shorter for the AD patients, but their fixation frequency was more than that of the controls. In addition, increased theta power and decreased alpha power were observed in the AD group. Interestingly, there was a statistically significant correlation between fixation frequency and alpha power in the parietal area in the control group. However, this connection was not statistically significant in the AD group. The findings also indicated an elevated coherence in the AD patients in the parieto-occipital area. It is assumed that the AD patients might use the neural compensational processes for the fixation state. This study provides evidence for the simultaneously EEG and eye-tracking changes in the areas, which are involved in the control of the fixational eye movements.

Psychosemantic Experiment as a Tool for Objectification of the Data for the Ways of Representing Synonymy in a Modern Russian Language

The recently created RuWordNet thesaurus reflects hierarchical, primarily synonymous, relations in the vocabulary so that it is built from a set of synsets. In this paper, we applied the method of a comparative analysis: we compared the data of classical dictionaries of Russian language synonyms, RuWordNet thesaurus and the results of a students' poll. The students represent two areas of specialization: linguistic and nonliguistic. As a result of the psychosemantic experiment, we specified the criteria for the distribution of lexical units among synsets. We referred to them cognitive, semantic, stylistic and quantitative criteria. The quantitative method made it possible to determine the fixation frequency of synonyms for the stimulus word in the respondents' minds. The results of the experiment showed that the most adequate principle, implemented in verbal and cogitative activity by the identifying of the synonymic chains, is a pragmatic one. It reveals itself in the possibility of the interchange of similar in meaning words in different contexts. The research results contain recommendations on the systematization of linguistic information in the RuWordNet thesaurus, aimed at improving the principles of synsets' building. The performed research is aimed at verifying the reflected in RuWordNet data from the point of view of their correspondence to the real idea of native speakers of the synonymic, hyponymic and other system-based relationship in the vocabulary.