5. Attention: Eye Tracking

Question 1

What type of concept is the simon effect?

Answer 1

gaming
- if you move the joystick to the left, the game will do the same
- explains what would happen if the relationship was reversed

Question 2

What happens according to the simon effect, when representations are consistent/inconsistent?

Answer 2

• if told to turn left into left ear = consistent
• consistent representations are easier to compute and therefore response is faster
• inconsistencies = tax on cognition

Question 3

What are automatic vs controlled processes?

Answer 3

automatic = a process that is instigated without conscious effort/control

controlled = a process that is voluntarily undertaken to meet a goal and requires cognitive resources

Question 4

What is the relationship between automatic and controlled processes?

Answer 4

automatic processes can interfere with controlled ‘voluntary’ processes
- with enough practice, controlled processes can become automatic

Question 5

How do our eyes work?

Answer 5

1. cornea: allows light into eye
2. pupil: hole
3. lens: focus’ light into retina by dilating
4. muscles (lens adjusters): compress/extend to allow light in to focus
5. retina: transforms light info to brain
6. optic nerve: transports electrical signals to the brain

Question 6

What is found in the retina?

Answer 6

two types of photoreceptors
1. cones: high level vision that respond to colour and are faster to react
2. rods: low level vision that doesn’t respond to colour

Question 7

What is the fovea?
What is found here?

Answer 7

area of highest visual activity on the retina
- large amounts of cones
- low amount of rods

Question 8

What is overt/covert attention?
How can we study this?

Answer 8

overt = what our eyes are looking at
covert = peripheral vison

use eye tracking to study

Question 9

What happens in the fovea?

Answer 9

• lots of cones = can focus on the equivalent of 7000 pixels (very good)
• just outside of the fovea visual resolution drops to just a few dozen pixels

Question 10

What is the historical perspective of eye tracking?

Answer 10

• earliest eye trackers were built in late 1800s for observations
• older eye trackers used a bite bar as standard

Question 11

What are the types of modern eye tracker?

Answer 11

• desktop
• mobile

Question 12

What are the pros and cons of a desktop eye tracker?

Answer 12

• not high precision
  + easy with children

Question 13

How do modern eye trackers work?

Answer 13

there are two scan paths:
1. fixation: where our eyes have stopped and focussed
2. saccade: an eye movement

Question 14

What can eye tracking tell us?

Answer 14

• distribution of attention: where we look at an image
• what was noticed
• indicates what is deemed important
• order of importance

Question 15

How does culture shape how we look at faces?

Answer 15

• western cultures focus on eyes and mouth
• east asian cultures focus on central areas of the face