Sheree Josephson

Attention to repeated images on the World-Wide Web: Another look at scanpath theory

The scanpath theory of visual perception was tested using Web pages as visual stimuli.Scanpaths are repetitive sequences of fixations and saccades that occur upon reexposure to a visual stimulus. Since Internet users are exposed to repeated visual displays, the Web provides ideal stimuli to test this theory. Eye movement data were recorded for subjects’repeated viewings of three Web pages over three sessions. Resemblance of eye path sequences was measured with a string-edit method; multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis were used to group sequences. Support was found for the scanpath theory; some clusters included pairs of sequences from the same subject. A repeated measures analysis of variance revealeda statistically significant main effect for stimulus type, with a text-intensive news story page generating more similar sequences than a graphic-intensive advertising page. There was a statistically significant main effect for cross-viewing comparisons, reflecting a linear trend in which eye paths for the same subject became more alike over time.

Keeping Your Readers' Eyes on the Screen: An Eye-Tracking Study Comparing Sans Serif and Serif Typefaces

An exploratory eye-tracking study was designed to compare the onscreen legibility of sans serif and serif typefaces. The typefaces selected for this study included the serif font Times New Roman and the sans serif font Arial—both originally designed for printing on paper—and the serif font Georgia and the sans serif font Verdana—both designed in recent years especially for reading onscreen. Six participants read four short news stories, each displayed in a different typeface, while their eye-movement behavior was recorded. Overall, Verdana performed best. Participants were able to read more quickly and experienced fewer regressions (backward movements) when the type was set in Verdana. They also expressed a strong preference for this font on the computer screen.

Age differences in visual search for information on web pages

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Eye Monitoring Studies on TV News and the Web Converge: A Tale of Two Screens

The merger of the “lay-back culture of the living room with the bustling activity of the lean-forward Net” [367] is underway. American television is starting to look a lot like the Web and the Web is looking more and more like television. This visual convergence will likely accelerate with the impending penetration of interactive TV (iTV) into the U.S. market and the growth of “Web 2.0” sites.

Selecting the Suspect: An Eye-Tracking Comparison of Viewing of Same-Race vs. Cross-Race Photographs in Eyewitness Identification

An eye-tracking study was conducted to examine cross-race recognition deficit (CRRD) or own-race bias in cross-racial eyewitness identification. The eye-tracking data revealed differences between Anglo eyewitness viewing and African American eyewitness viewing of the same-race photo lineups. Variations in scan path complexity and sequential patterns suggest a “mixed strategy” for scanning the photographic lineups was more common than an “absolute” or “relative” strategy.

Just State the Facts on Twitter: Eye Tracking Shows That Readers May Ignore Questions Posted by News Organizations On Twitter But Not on Facebook

As the print newspaper industry struggles to attract readers in this day of declining readership, reporters are posting messages in social media to try to draw attention to their stories. In doing this, journalists are faced with numerous choices about how to phrase the content. To literally see if one headline approach is more eye-catching than another in social media, an eye-tracking study was conducted. Thirty-two participants viewed a Facebook feed and a Twitter feed, each containing combinations of two summary headlines and two question headlines while their eye movements were recorded. They also took a short survey about their opinion on the effectiveness of these headline techniques in social media. The results show that some readers may not pay attention to questions in Twitter and prefer the use of statements in Twitter. A lack of visual attention to questions in Twitter emerged from the data for gazes where the only headlines in the first position (with one exception) to not be fixated on were all Twitter questions from the news organization. Similarly, the lowest average fixation duration was on Twitter questions, and the lowest number of fixation points was found on Twitter questions. Survey results help to explain eye behavior. In the survey, the effectiveness of the use of Twitter question headlines was rated at 3.19 on a 5-point Likert scale, compared to 4.22 for Twitter statement headlines. In comparison, the average effectiveness of Facebook questions was 3.66 compared to the 3.19 for Twitter questions. Questions fared considerably better in Facebook in both the eye-tracking tests and survey responses.