Tracking Eye Movements, an Approach for Measuring Reading Based on visual interaction

Document Type : Review Article

Author

• Mahdi Zahedi Nooghabi

Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

10.22067/riis.v7i1.55396

Abstract

Eye tracking is a method for analyzing eye movements through an eye tracker device which traces and records eye rotations, temporal and spatial position and orientation. Today, most current eye trackers for research are Video-based corneal reflection. Two applications for eye tracing have been developed in the 20th Century i.e. eye movements when reading, and eye tracking for usability engineering in human-product interaction.
This paper aims to explain about the application of eye tracking method and eye tracker in the reading field. It introduces some tools and their capabilities for doing practical research by eye tracker in printed and web contexts.
Eye tracking method is well-founded and is currently applied in Psycholinguistics research. There are three different approaches for using eye tracking in the reading studies: First, concentration is on visual processing and sensorimotor control; thereby basic issues on perception, attention, and motor control can be assessed within a quite visual structured (ecological) context that is far more ecologically valid than many laboratory tasks. Second, is more related to cognitive science; where reading is seen as a branch of human information processing model, like understanding a visual position. Third, the most noticeable direction is the use of eye movements for testing psycholinguistic hypotheses about the processing of written language; Most researches in this area are concentrated on examining syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and world-knowledge factors manifested in reading. Theories and measures based on it guide researchers for doing novel researches.

Keywords

• Reading
• eye tracking
• eye tracker
• eye movements
• Psycholinguistics
• eye movement measures
• reading path

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