John Hutson

Use of Eye-Tracking Technology to Investigate Cognitive Load Theory

Cognitive load theory (CLT) provides us guiding principles in the design of learning materials. CLT differentiates three different kinds of cognitive load -- intrinsic, extraneous and germane load. Intrinsic load is related to the learning goal, extraneous load costs cognitive resources but does not contribute to learning. Germane load can foster learning. Objective methods, such as eye movement measures and EEG have been used measure the total cognitive load. Very few research studies, if any, have been completed to measure the three kinds of load separately with physiological methods in a continuous manner. In this current study, we will show how several eye-tracking based parameters are related to the three kinds of load by having explicit manipulation of the three loads independently. Participants having low prior knowledge regarding the learning material participated in the study. Working memory capacity was also measured by an operation memory span task.

What is the role of the film viewer? The effects of narrative comprehension and viewing task on gaze control in film

Film is ubiquitous, but the processes that guide viewers’ attention while viewing film narratives are poorly understood. In fact, many film theorists and practitioners disagree on whether the film stimulus (bottom-up) or the viewer (top-down) is more important in determining how we watch movies. Reading research has shown a strong connection between eye movements and comprehension, and scene perception studies have shown strong effects of viewing tasks on eye movements, but such idiosyncratic top-down control of gaze in film would be anathema to the universal control mainstream filmmakers typically aim for. Thus, in two experiments we tested whether the eye movements and comprehension relationship similarly held in a classic film example, the famous opening scene of Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil (Welles & Zugsmith, Touch of Evil, 1958). Comprehension differences were compared with more volitionally controlled task-based effects on eye movements. To investigate the effects of comprehension on eye movements during film viewing, we manipulated viewers’ comprehension by starting participants at different points in a film, and then tracked their eyes. Overall, the manipulation created large differences in comprehension, but only produced modest differences in eye movements. To amplify top-down effects on eye movements, a task manipulation was designed to prioritize peripheral scene features: a map task. This task manipulation created large differences in eye movements when compared to participants freely viewing the clip for comprehension. Thus, to allow for strong, volitional top-down control of eye movements in film, task manipulations need to make features that are important to narrative comprehension irrelevant to the viewing task. The evidence provided by this experimental case study suggests that filmmakers’ belief in their ability to create systematic gaze behavior across viewers is confirmed, but that this does not indicate universally similar comprehension of the film narrative.

Hot under the collar: The impact of heat on game play

High temperatures have been documented to affect behavior in a variety of ways depending on the nature of the task. We extended this prior research by examining the effects of dynamically changing temperature on various aspects of performance in a video game task. In the span of approximately an hour, temperature was gradually increased, stayed constant for a period of time, and gradually decreased to baseline. The gaming task was a variation on one used to assess impulsivity in participants thus allowing the possibility of assessing the effects of temperature on impulsive choice. Rather than heat increasing impulsivity and thus decreasing wait times, participants showed increases in wait times as temperature increased which either suggests that participants were becoming more self-controlled under heat or that the documented negative impact of heat on motor functioning was dominating their performance. Importantly, the participants sensitivity to the changing task requirements was not affected by changes in temperature.

How do Multimedia Hints Affect Students’ Eye Movements in Conceptual Physics Problems?

We investigated the effect of hint modality on students’ eye movements on conceptual physics problems with diagrams. We recruited 57 students enrolled in a physics class for future elementary teachers. The participants were randomly assigned to conditions with no hints, visual hints, text hints, audio hints, and all possible hint modality combinations. We found that different hint modalities affect students’ eye movements differently and the difference of students’ eye movements relates to their problem-solving performance. The results of this study are different from the predictions based on Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning (CTML). Our results suggest that the cognitive process in physics problem solving may not be fully explained by CTML and therefore more research might be necessary in this area.