A review of using eye-tracking technology in exploring learning from 2000 to 2012

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Review

A review of using eye-tracking technology in exploring learning

from 2000 to 2012

Meng-Lung Lai

a

, Meng-Jung Tsai

b

, Fang-Ying Yang

c,⇑

, Chung-Yuan Hsu

d

, Tzu-Chien Liu

e

,

Silvia Wen-Yu Lee

f

, Min-Hsien Lee

g

, Guo-Li Chiou

h

, Jyh-Chong Liang

b

, Chin-Chung Tsai

b

a

National Chiayi University, No. 85, Wenlong, Minhsiung, Chiayi County 621, Taiwan

b

National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, No. 43, Sec. 4, Keelung Rd., Da’an Dist., Taipei City 106, Taiwan

c

National Taiwan Normal University, No. 88, Sec. 4, Ting-Zhou Rd., Wen-Shan Dist., Taipei City 116, Taiwan

d_{National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, No. 1, Shuefu Road, Neipu, Pingtung 912, Taiwan} e_{National Central University, No. 300, Jhongda Rd., Jhongli City, Taoyuan County 320, Taiwan}

f

National Changhua University of Education, No. 1, Jin-De Road, Changhua City, Taiwan

g

National Sun Yat-Sen University, No. 70, Lienhai Rd., Kaohsiung City 80424, Taiwan

h

National Chiao Tung University, No. 1001, University Road, Hsinchu City 300, Taiwan

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 10 April 2013 Revised 31 August 2013 Accepted 3 October 2013 Available online 14 October 2013 Keywords:

Eye tracking Eye movements Process of learning

a b s t r a c t

This study aims to disclose how eye-tracking technology has been applied to studies of learning, and what eye movement measures have been used for investigations by review-ing studies that have employed the eye-trackreview-ing approach. A total of 81 papers includreview-ing 113 studies were selected from the Social Sciences Citation Index database from 2000 to 2012. Content analysis showed that eye movements and learning were studied under the following seven themes: patterns of information processing, effects of instructional design, reexamination of existing theories, individual differences, effects of learning strategies, patterns of decision making, and conceptual development. As for eye-tracking measurements, the most often used indices were temporal measures, followed by count and spatial measures, although the choice of measures was often motivated by the speciﬁc research question. Research development trends show that the use of the eye-tracking method has proliferated recently. This study concludes that the eye-tracking method provides a promising channel for educational researchers to connect learning outcomes to cognitive processes.

Contents

1. Introduction . . . 91

2. Literature review . . . 91

2.1. Learning & cognitive development. . . 91

2.2. Eye movement applications . . . 92

2.3. Eye movement measures . . . 92

3. Purpose of the paper . . . 94

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2013.10.001

⇑ Corresponding author. Address: Graduate Institute of Science Education, National Taiwan Normal University, No. 88, Sec. 4, Ting-Zhou Rd., Taipei 116, Taiwan. Tel.: +886 2 77346801; fax: +886 2 29327630.

E-mail address:fangyang@ntnu.edu.tw(F.-Y. Yang).

Contents lists available atScienceDirect

Educational Research Review

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4. Method . . . 94

4.1. Paper selection . . . 94

4.2. Coding procedure . . . 94

5. Results and discussion . . . 95

5.1. Overall findings . . . 95

5.2. The bridging framework . . . 96

5.2.1. Patterns of information processing . . . 96

5.2.2. Effects of instructional strategies. . . 96

5.2.3. Reexaminations of existing theories . . . 97

5.2.4. Individual differences . . . 97

5.2.5. Effects of learning strategies . . . 97

5.2.6. Patterns of decision making. . . 98

5.2.7. Social cultural effects . . . 98

5.3. The research trend of the eye tracking method applied in learning-related studies . . . 98

5.4. The use of eye movement measures in learning-related studies . . . 98

6. Conclusion . . . 99

7. Future studies. . . 99

Acknowledgement . . . 100

Appendix. Analysis of connection to learning in each reviewed study . . . 100

References . . . 112

1. Introduction

In educational research, a considerable number of studies have been devoted to the processes and outcomes of learning (e.g.,Posner, Strike, Hewson, & Gertzog, 1982; Schnotz, Vosniadou, & Carretero, 1999). Traditionally, the interview procedure based on the think-aloud protocol has been the most important and frequently used technique to probe cognitive activities during learning (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993; Mintzes, Wandersee, & Novak, 1999). However, such a method often suffers from validity issues. For this reason, educational researchers are seeking various research methods developed in different academic domains in the hope of presenting the process of learning from different angles (Anderson, 2007). Among various techniques, the eye tracking method, which has been intensively used by psychologists to study basic cognitive processes during reading and other types of information processing (Rayner, 1998, 2009), has just started to attract attention from edu-cators in recent years. This method is valuable due to its capacity to recode online cognitive activities, and therefore, it is certainly a promising tool for tracking the cognitive process of learning.

As mentioned, the use of eye tracking technology in educational research has been growing in recent years, but most studies have been conducted in psychology related ﬁelds. Consequently, what learning issues have been explored by the technology, and how different eye movement measures can inform us about cognitive activities during learning are still not easily assessable by educators. A systematic analysis of the eye movement studies related to learning would allow edu-cators to better understand how the eye tracking technology could be and has been used. Therefore, in the current work, by carrying out an extensive literature review, we have made an attempt to examine how the eye movement studies in psychol-ogy are related to studies of learning in the domain of education. A bridging framework is then established to illustrate the relationship.

2. Literature review

2.1. Learning & cognitive development

The paradigm shifts in the theories of learning, moving from behaviorism emphasizing observable behaviors to cognitive perspectives embracing mental activities, have had a tremendous influence on educational practice. Early cognitive psychol-ogists such as Piaget and Vygotsky proposed that cognitive development undergoes active changes in cognitive structures. Based on such a viewpoint, learning is thought to bring about cognitive development (e.g.,Ginsburg & Opper, 1988; Phillips & Soltis, 2009). The cognitive position on learning is further strengthened by many modern neurocognitive studies showing the flexibility of the human brain, and the effect of learning on the change in brain structure (e.g.,Galván, 2010; Goswami, 2008; Lee et al., 2010). In sum, supported by both cognitive and neurocognitive studies, learning manifests itself in not only the acquisition of new information, but also the development of perception, social cognition, language, mathematical think-ing, causal/scientific reasonthink-ing, psychomotor skills, problem solving skills and strategies, and conceptual knowledge ( Ander-son, 2009; Goswami, 2008). Accordingly, when learning becomes a subject to be examined, one may find that the foci of discussions are actually related to different aspects of human cognitive development. For that reason, the topics of learning discussed in this review study include various aspects of cognitive development as defined previously.

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2.2. Eye movement applications

People’s visual perception typically consists of three parts: foveal, parafoveal, and peripheral vision. The fovea is the central area of the retina; the parafovea describes the region surrounding the fovea; and the periphery refers to the region outside the parafovea. Acuity is greatest in the fovea, decreasing in the parafovea, and is even poorer in the periphery. In order to see things clearly, people frequently move their eyes to locate objects of interest in the region of greatest visual res-olution (fovea) (Liversedge, Gilchrist, & Everling, 2011). Eye movement researchers have identiﬁed different types of eye movement, some of which keep the fovea on a visual target in the environment (e.g., saccades and smooth pursuits), while others stabilize the eye during head movement (e.g., ﬁxations) (Duchowski, 2007; Liversedge et al., 2011; Underwood & Rad-ach, 1998). Studies have shown that different readers have different perceptual spans indicating areas of effective vision, and that new information is not acquired during saccades (Rayner, 1986, 1998).

The eye tracking method is basically developed based on the abovementioned characteristics of eye movements and the ‘‘eye-mind’’ assumption proposed byJust and Carpenter (1980), which suggests that eye movements provide a dynamic trace of where attention is being directed. Although there are studies showing inconsistent results, it is widely agreed that during a complex information processing task such as reading, eye movements and attention are linked (Rayner, 1998).

As mentioned previously, the eye-tracking method has been successfully and broadly applied to research in psychology related ﬁelds for decades. Most applications are related to research involving information processing, such as reading, scene perception, visual searching, music reading, and typing (for a detailed review seeRadach & Kennedy, 2004; Rayner, 1998, 2009). Measures of eye movements have revealed the fundamental cognitive processes and mechanisms involved in reading comprehension (Rayner, Chace, Slattery, & Ashby, 2006) and visual perception (Liversedge & Findlay, 2000). On the other hand, eye tracking techniques have also been applied to investigate human–computer interactions (Goldberg & Helfman, 2011; Jacob & Karn, 2003) as well as media communications (Hyönä, 2003). As for high level cognitive processing, some prior studies have attempted to utilize eye trackers for examinations such as exploring the process of arithmetic problem solving (e.g.,Hegarty, Mayer, & Green, 1992). Recently, some researchers have even used this technique to explore learning pro-cesses in complex learning contexts such as emergent literacy, multimedia learning, and science problem solving strategies (e.g.,Tsai, Hou, Lai, Liu, & Yang, 2012; van Gog & Scheiter, 2010). Readers may ﬁnd comprehensive overviews of the eye tracking methods and practices in some recently published books (e.g.,Duchowski, 2007; Holmqvist et al., 2011; Liversedge et al., 2011). It seems that eye-tracking techniques could be employed in different ways for different studies; therefore, a conceptual framework of eye-tracking measures is important for educational researchers to conduct eye-tracking studies. In sum, before integrating eye-tracking techniques into educational studies, educational researchers need to know what eye-tracking measures are typically used and how they have been used in the related literature.

2.3. Eye movement measures

In general, eye movements consist of a series of fixations and saccades while reading information or viewing scenes. Psy-chological and human–computer-interaction studies usually define a fixation as a relatively stable state of eye movement, and a saccade as the rapid eye movement between two consecutive fixations. According toRayner (1998, 2009), a fixation generally ranges from 100 to 500 ms, depending on the viewed materials. A fixation is, on average, about 250 ms while read-ing. A 2-degree saccade usually takes about 30 ms in a typical reading task, while a 5-degree saccade (typical of scene per-ception) lasts about 40–50 ms. Many different eye-tracking measures have been used in prior studies and most of the measures focus on reading or word-based contexts.

Eye-tracking measures have been conceptualized in different approaches. Liversedge, Paterson, and Pickering (1998) illustrated the use of reading time measures and provided a thorough discussion of temporal measures versus spatial mea-sures.Goldberg and Kotval (1999)evaluated several spatial measures based on eye movement locations and scanpaths for computer interface evaluation.Jacob and Karn (2003)then reviewed 21 usability studies incorporating eye-tracking tech-niques, and summarized six frequently used eye-tracking measures as fixation count, proportion of time spent on each area of interest (AOI), average fixation duration, fixation count on each AOI, gaze duration mean on each AOI, and fixation rate (count/s). Meanwhile, according to the scale of measurement,Radach and Kennedy (2004)grouped word-based eye-tracking measures into two categories: a temporal scale (measured by time) and a spatial scale (measured by space).

To systematically understand eye movement measures, the current study summarized commonly used eye-tracking indi-ces according to two dimensions (shown inTable 1): types of eye movement (fixation, saccade, mixed) and scales of measure-ment (temporal, spatial, count). Each of the eye-tracking measures is briefly defined inTable 2. Of the three types of eye movement, fixation and saccade are the two major types recorded by eye-trackers and defined in the above section. The mixed type, indicating a combination of fixations and/or saccades, is considered and analyzed, e.g., total reading time which includes both fixation durations and saccade durations, and scanpath which consists of multiple successive fixations and saccades.

Regarding the scales of measurement, three categories can be identified: temporal, spatial and count. First, the temporal scale means that eye movement is measured in a time dimension, e.g. durations of time spent on some particular areas of interest. Several common eye-tracking indices such as total fixation duration, total reading time and time to first fixation are measured in this scale. Another index commonly used in reading research is gaze duration which refers to the total fixation

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duration within a word. Temporal measures may answer the ‘‘when’’ and ‘‘how long’’ questions in relation to cognitive pro-cessing, and are often used to imply the occurrences of reading problems (Liversedge et al., 1998).

Second, the spatial scale measures eye movement in a space dimension. It concerns locations, distances, directions, se-quences, transactions, spatial arrangement or relationships of fixations or saccades. Indices such as fixation position, fixation sequence, saccade length and scanpath patterns belong to this scale. Sometimes, researchers further analyze the directions of saccadic movements by specifying progressive saccade or regressive saccade. Spatial measures may answer the ‘‘where’’ and ‘‘how’’ questions in relation to cognitive process. Saccadic eye movements and scanning behaviors are important in that they reveal the control of selective processes in visual perceptions including visual searching and reading (Liversedge & Findlay, 2000).

Finally, the count scale measures eye movements on a count or frequency basis. For example, fixation count, revisited fixation count and probability of fixation count belong to this category. These count measures are usually used to reveal the importance of visual materials. Sometimes, fixation counts are strongly correlated with measures such as total fixation duration. This suggests that measurements in different categories might possibly reflect the same cognitive process.

Overall, the above framework provides a basic guideline to understand the various types and characteristics of eye move-ment measures. However, we should notice that research in different domains may focus on different categories of eye-tracking measurements. For example, reading research may focus more on temporal measures, while visual perception

Table 1

Commonly used eye-tracking measures in a two-dimensional framework.

Fixation Saccade Mixed

Temporal

Total ﬁxation duration Saccade duration Total reading time

Gaze duration First pass time

Average ﬁxation duration Re-reading time

First fixation duration Time to first fixation Revisited fixation duration Proportion of fixation duration Spatial

Fixation position Saccade length Scanpath pattern Fixation sequence

Count

Fixation count Saccade count Average ﬁxation count Inter-scanning count Revisited ﬁxation count

Probability of ﬁxation count

Table 2

Deﬁnitions of eye-tracking measures.

Measures Deﬁnition

Temporal

Total ﬁxation duration Total time spent on ﬁxations

Gaze duration Total ﬁxation duration within a word or an AOI

Average fixation duration Mean of fixation duration on each AOI. (i.e., Gaze duration mean) First fixation duration Time spent on the first fixation

Time to first fixation Time spent from stimuli onset to the first fixation arrival Revisited fixation duration Sum of revisited fixation durations within an AOI

Proportion of fixation duration Proportion of time fixated on an AOI compared to the total fixation durations or total reading time of a whole task Saccade duration Sum of saccadic time spent within an AOI

Total reading time Total time spent for a reading task or spent within an AOI First pass time Time spent for the ﬁrst entering of an AOI until leaving Re-reading time Sum of revisited time spent within an AOI

Spatial

Fixation position Location of a ﬁxation

Fixation sequence Sequence of fixation allocations on AOIs Saccade length Distance between two consecutive fixations Scanpath pattern Pattern of fixation sequences

Count

Total fixation count Total number of fixations counted in an AOI or in a task Average fixation count Average fixation count on each AOI

Revisited ﬁxation count Sum of revisited ﬁxations count within an AOI

Probability of fixation count Probability of fixation count within an AOI compared to the number of fixations overall Saccade count Total number of saccades counted within an AOI

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research may focus more on spatial measures. In addition, a measurement can sometimes be named in different ways depending on the materials and tasks. For example, ‘‘total reading time’’ can be shown as ‘‘total viewing time’’, ‘‘total inspec-tion time’’ or ‘‘total trial time.’’ Besides, some relatively newly or controversially developed measures are not included in the above framework, such as pupil dilation and blinks which have been discussed or used to infer users’ mental work load in some human–computer-interaction studies (Beatty, 1982;Gilman & Underwood, 2003; Hess & Polt, 1964; Öquist, Hein, Ygge, & Goldstein, 2004). In sum, the eye-tracking technique is an attractive and powerful tool to reveal the cognitive pro-cesses of student learning. However, it is a challenge for educators to integrate eye-tracking techniques into educational studies. Educational researchers need to know not only how to employ them as a methodology but also how to apply and interpret their measurements in order to properly understanding student learning processes in varied learning situations.

3. Purpose of the paper

In this study, we review empirical studies that have employed the eye tracking technology to probe the cognitive pro-cesses during learning. By analyzing relevant works of the past 13 years (since 2000), we expect to disclose how the eye-movement approach has been applied to the studies of different learning topics, and what eye eye-movement measures have been used for investigation. The analysis and integration of the abovementioned information may help to construct a frame-work revealing how the eye tracking method can inform us about cognitive activities related to learning.

4. Method 4.1. Paper selection

The literature source for this review was the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) database, one of the highly recognized databases indexing core journals in the social sciences. The time span was set from 2000 to 2012, and the document type was limited to journal articles in an attempt to review studies of potentially more consistent quality. The procedures imple-mented to identify the research papers of this study can be classified into two stages. In the first stage, four sets of keywords were organized for searches using the Boolean operator ‘AND,’ including ‘‘eye movement⁄ AND learning’’, ‘‘eye tracking AND learning’’, ‘‘eye movement⁄ AND education’’, as well as ‘‘eye tracking AND education.’’ Subsequently, these four sets of key-words were combined using the Boolean operator ‘OR.’ When the results were produced, we refined the subject areas to physics, mathematics, behavioral sciences, psychology, developmental psychology, educational psychology, experimental psychology, mathematical psychology, multidisciplinary psychology, education and educational research, and special education.

In the second stage, four researchers manually and systematically screened the article titles and abstracts and confirmed that the selected articles: (1) did not have as their participants robots, animals (e.g., monkeys), infants, or special populations (e.g., people with autism) because the main focus of this review is to examine the general trends of the eye tracking method applied in the schooling context; (2) used eye tracking devices, and (3) provided empirical evidence or evaluation. During the screening process, any inconsistent decisions among the four researchers were discussed and resolved. Finally, 81 papers were identified as the research sample pool of this review. Noticeably, there were papers involving more than one experi-ment. To include all the eye movement investigations, each of the experiments was counted as an independent study. As a result, 113 studies in total were identified.

4.2. Coding procedure

The content analysis consisted of three stages. In the first stage, the content of a selected paper was preliminarily coded based on its learning topics to specify different aspects of cognitive development. As mentioned in the literature review sec-tion, learning manifests itself in not only the acquisition of new informasec-tion, but also in the development of percepsec-tion, so-cial cognition, language, mathematical thinking, causal/scientific reasoning, problem solving skills/strategies, and conceptual knowledge (Anderson, 2009; Goswami, 2008). As such, these major aspects of cognitive development were adopted to rep-resent the categories of learning topics to be coded in the first coding stage. To be able to determine the learning topics stud-ied in each selected paper, we looked for major research subjects related to each aspect of cognitive development from several well-recognized cognitive psychology textbooks (e.g.Anderson, 2009; Gagné, Yekovich, & Yekovich, 1993; Goswami, 2008). These research subjects for each aspect of cognitive development were then included as the subtopics for each learn-ing topic discussed in the study. Thus, a codlearn-ing scheme for analyzlearn-ing the learnlearn-ing topics included in each selected paper was developed as shown inTable 3. Noticeably, to fulfill the study purpose, the learning topics listed in the coding scheme in-clude subtopics related most to learning in the schooling context.

In the second stage, all papers of different learning topics were then coded for the research questions or tasks, eye move-ment measures and indications drawn from these eye movemove-ment measures. In the last stage, through cross-examination of the research questions/tasks and the eye movement indications identiﬁed in each paper, several thematic linkages were gen-erated, which describe how the eye movement studies were connected to the issues of learning. The thematic linkages were

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defined as ‘‘learning themes.’’ In brief, the researchers examined the research purposes and questions of a study from the text and then proceeded to identify what information the eye movement data could indicate for the research purposes and ques-tions. For example, the main research task in the work ofD’Melloa, Olney, Williams, and Hays (2012)was to evaluate the efficacy of a gaze-reactive tutoring system in promoting learning, motivation and engagement. Eye movement measures investigated in the study included gaze position and probability distributions of gaze events. The study found that students’ attention indicated by the gaze patterns was affected by the tutoring system. Based on the abovementioned information, the learning theme of the study was classified as ‘‘the effects of instructional strategies.’’ Three educational researchers with specialization in eye movement worked together to define and examine the learning themes.

A large table showing how the eye tracking technology has been used to reveal cognitive activities in relation to learning, abstracted from each reviewed paper, is listed in the Appendix. Finally, seven learning themes connecting the eye tracking method and learning were generated to form a bridging framework of eye movement research in education. The framework is displayed inFig. 1. To solve the issue of coding reliability, three researchers collaboratively worked together on the coding procedure. Disagreements were solved after discussions among the researchers.

5. Results and discussion 5.1. Overall ﬁndings

By content analysis, it was found that the 81 papers (containing 113 studies) reviewed here discussed topics of learning such as perception, causal reasoning, social cognition, meaning-based representations, language, conceptual development, Table 3

The learning topics and their associated subtopics for content analysis. Learning topic Associated subtopics

Perception Object/visual recognition, spatial relations, animated relations (continuous actions) Social cognition Awareness of self and others, recognizing intentional actions by others, social referencing Meaning-based

representation

Concepts of basic or natural objects, schema (true categories and episodic memories) Language Phonological, lexical, grammatical, reading

Reasoning Causes and effects, causal principles, coordination of theory and evidence, hypothesis testing, integration of information, metacognitive reasoning

Conceptual development Basic-level/superordinate/subordinate categories or concepts (related to school subjects), conceptual change, domain-speciﬁc knowledge

Skill/strategy learning Domain-general skills, domain-speciﬁc strategies

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and skills/strategy learning. Among these topics, conceptual development received the most attention (40 studies), followed by perception (25 studies) and language (23 studies). Only a few studies were dedicated to causal reasoning, social cognition, and skills/strategy learning (3, 5, and 6 studies, respectively). The initial analysis suggested that when the eye movement method was applied to studies related to learning, the focus of discussion was largely on the acquisition of new information or conceptual knowledge.

As far as eye movement measures are concerned, temporal measures were the most frequently employed overall (138 times, given that some studies used more than one measure), followed by frequency measures (55 times) and spatial mea-sures (38 times). Rather than revealing basic cognitive mechanisms, eye movement meamea-sures, when applied to the studies related to learning, were used to disclose mostly the perceptual habits, mental efforts, and change or movement of attention on learning materials. In short, the eye movement data shown in the reviewed studies largely suggested real-time attention distribution. In due course, how exactly eye movement measures are related to the processes or outcomes of learning need to be further tested by studies incorporating adequate performance measurements. These measurements may include achieve-ment tests, behavioral observations, log records, rate of accuracy, response time, introspective reﬂections and so forth. 5.2. The bridging framework

As mentioned previously, in the last stage of the coding procedure, the cross-examinations of the research questions and eye movement indications of each study across different learning topics eventually abstracted 7 learning themes out of the 113 reviewed studies. These themes include (1) Patterns of information processing, (2) Effects of instructional strategies, (3) Reexaminations of existing theories, (4) Individual differences, (5) Effects of learning strategies, (6) Social/Cultural effects, and (7) Decision making patterns. Noticeably, some of the papers embraced two themes in their design. Accordingly, a bridg-ing framework was created as inFig. 1, showing the 7 generative learning themes that specify how the eye tracking tech-nology has been used to explore learning issues. In the following, an analysis of each learning theme is depicted.

5.2.1. Patterns of information processing

In our review, 53 studies were found to map the patterns of information processing. The majority of these works dis-cussed the learning topics of language (18 studies), perception (19 studies), and meaning-based representations (9 studies). A few studies dealt with problems concerning conceptual development (4 studies), social cognition (2 studies), and psycho-motor learning (1 study).

The patterns of information processing investigated in these studies include how learners acquire new words or recognize learned words (Arnold, Eisenband, Brown-Schmidt, & Trueswell, 2000; Bolger & Zapata, 2011; Brandt-Kobele & Höhle, 2010; Brown-Schmidt, 2009; Brusnighan & Folk, 2012; Chafﬁn, Morris, & and & Seely, 2001; Grüter, Lew-Williams, & Fernald, 2012; Schmiedtova, 2011; Shatzman & McQueen, 2006; Wonnacott, Newport, & Tanenhaus, 2008), how learners control and dis-tribute their attention during visual searching, and how contextual, semantic or memory factors may affect object/visual rec-ognition and the processes of visual searching (Beesley & Le Pelley, 2010; Brockmole & Le-Hoa Võ, 2010; Castelhano & Heaven, 2011; Goujon, Brockmole, & Ehinger, 2012; Guérard, Saint-Aubin, Boucher, & Tremblay, 2011; Karacan, Cagiltay, & Tekman, 2010; Koenig & Lachnit, 2011; Mou, Liu, & McNamara, 2009; Roderer, Krebs, Schmid, & Roebers, 2012; Tremblay, 2011; van Asselen, Sampaio, Pina, & Castelo-Branco, 2011; Wang & Mitchell, 2011; Welham & Wills, 2011). At a more basic level of learning, how humans learn object-based categories and face recognition has been discussed (Blair, Watson, & Meier, 2009; Goldinger, He, & Papesh, 2009; Henderson, Williams, & Falk, 2005; Hsiao & Cottrell, 2008; Huestegge & Koch, 2012; Liu & Chuang, 2011; Sekiguchi, 2011). As far as the higher level of learning is concerned, attention distributions during concept learning and problem solving have also been study targets (Bartolotti & Marian, 2012; Liu, Lai, & Chuang, 2011; Schneider, Maruyama, Dehaene, & Sigman, 2012). In addition, the few studies investigating social cognition and psychomotor learning reveal how learners learn to respond associatively to sensory (social) cues and how skills are obtained over time (Herwig & Horstmann, 2011; Mu, 2010). In short, due to the process characteristic, eye tracking technology has been extensively used to depict the patterns of information processing on various levels of learning.

5.2.2. Effects of instructional strategies

As for the 26 studies focusing on the effects of instructional strategies, nearly all of these studies involved conceptual development (22 studies), while only a few involved psychomotor learning (3 studies) or language learning (1 study). Most of the studies concerned how to design multimedia for better learning support. Speciﬁcally, various cues, guidance, displays, controls and presentations were manipulated and examined for the use of multimedia, especially animations, in related studies (Boucheix & Lowe, 2010; de Koning, Tabbers, Rikers, & Paas, 2010; Johnson & Mayer, 2012; Meyer, Rasch, & Schnotz, 2010; Ozcelik, Arslan-Ari, & Cagiltay, 2010; Ozcelik, Karakus, Kursun, & Cagiltay, 2009; Schmidt-Weigand, Kohnert, & Glo-walla, 2010; Stieff, Hegarty, & Deslongchamps, 2011). Many studies focused on designs for text and graphic comprehension or problem solving (e.g.,Ariasi & Mason, 2011; Blythe et al., 2012; Hegarty, Canham, & Fabrikant, 2010; Lewis & Mensink, 2012; Liu & Shen, 2011; She & Chen, 2009). Several studies attempted to examine the use of various mind tools, such as con-cept maps (Amadieu, van Gog, Paas, Tricot, & and & Marine, 2009), video annotation systems (Mu, 2010), simulated touch function (Wiebe, Minogue, Jones, Cowley, & Krebs, 2009), focused attention training (Pradhan et al., 2011), and gaze-based tutoring systems (D’Melloa, Olney, Williams, and Hays, 2012). In sum, these studies used eye-tracking techniques to examine

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student learning states while interacting with multimedia learning environments. The results of these studies can provide valuable feedback for individualized learning system designs.

5.2.3. Reexaminations of existing theories

Among the reviewed papers, we found that 14 studies aimed to reexamine the existing theories. Most of these studies were centered on the topics of conceptual development (7 studies) and perception (4 studies), while three studies were on the topics of meaning-based representation (1 study), language (1 study), and psychomotor learning (1 study). The theories under reexamination mainly included category learning (Blair, Watson, Walshe, & Maj, 2009; Rehder, Colner, & Hoffman, 2009; Rehder & Hoffman, 2005a,b), processes of visual search in learning (Hout & Goldinger, 2011; Jones & Kaschak, 2011), language learning (Whitford & Titone, 2012), and skill learning in complex tasks (Lee & Anderson, 2001). These theories seem to reﬂect mostly the basic levels of learning.

5.2.4. Individual differences

A total of 15 studies were found to focus on examining individual differences among learners. Most of them involved con-ceptual development (6 studies) and language learning (6 studies). Others dealt with psychomotor learning (2 studies), pat-terns of decision making (2 studies) and meaning-based representation (1 study). It is noticed that the majority of these studies concerned higher-level cognition, such as conceptual development and language learning, comparing learners with different characteristics. These characteristics included prior language background (Bartolotti & Marian, 2012; Grüter et al., 2012; Tremblay, 2011), prior domain knowledge (Balslev et al., 2012; Kim & Rehder, 2011; Ooms, De Maeyer, Fack, Van Assche, & Witlox, 2012; Tsai et al., 2012), domain expertise (Balslev et al., 2012), prior experience (Sekiguchi, 2011) and age level (Blythe et al., 2012; Isaacowitz & Choi, 2012; Neider & Kramer, 2011). Those investigations which focused on back-ground knowledge or experience showed that the researchers are rooted in constructivist perspectives of learning, while those focused on age level showed that some studies examined learning from the developmental perspectives of learning. 5.2.5. Effects of learning strategies

Nine studies in this review used eye tracking technology to examine students’ learning strategies and the effects of these strategies. The learning topics in this category ranged from conceptual development (3 studies), psychomotor learning (3 studies), and perception (2 studies) to meaning-based representation (1 study). A diversity of discussions were covered in this theme, including, for example, how learners process text, graphic and spatial information (Guérard, Tremblay, & Saint-Aubin, 2009; Smerecnik et al., 2010), how students attend to and select information during web searching (Miwa et al., 2011; Neider & Kramer, 2011), and how learners solve problems during complex tasks such as domain-speciﬁc multi-ple-choice tests (Tsai et al., 2012), multipart skill learning tasks (Lee & Anderson, 2001), and error judgment tasks (Wills, Lavric, Croft, & Hodgson, 2007). In short, studies in this theme emphasize the sequences of cognitive actions appearing in various learning and problem solving tasks.

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5.2.6. Patterns of decision making

There were 3 studies discussing the patterns of decision-making in the scope of causal reasoning. Among them, one ex-plored how people retrieved memories during decision making (Renkewitz & Jahn, 2012) and the other two discussed how people of different ages and knowledge backgrounds make choices when given task relevant information or how they mon-itor their memory during a choice task (Miller & Cassady, 2012; Roderer & Roebers, 2010). In sum, studies on the theme of patterns of decision making often took into consideration cognitive and developmental constraints.

5.2.7. Social cultural effects

There were 3 studies discussing social cultural effects. Two of these studies discussed the cultural differences in process-ing faces of difference races (Kelly et al., 2011; Nakabayashi et al., 2012) and the other discussed the relation between atten-tion and social cogniatten-tion (Kim & Mundy, 2012). Obviously, the exploration of the social-cultural effect is rare in eye movement studies related to learning.

It is worth mentioning that among the reviewed studies, we found 12 which involved more than one learning theme and, interestingly, the theme of individual differences was most often investigated with other learning themes, particularly the patterns of information processing, and the effects of learning strategies.

5.3. The research trend of the eye tracking method applied in learning-related studies

AsFig. 2shows, the number of eye movement studies related to learning has increased signiﬁcantly since 2009. With re-spect to the 7 learning themes, over 40% of these studies focused on describing patterns of information processing. Mean-while, studies discussing the effects of instructional strategies have also grown signiﬁcantly in the recent 3 years. Other than the abovementioned two themes, an increasing number of researchers are taking notice of individual differences. It seems that social/cultural effects and decision-making patterns are two themes that have just caught educational research-ers’ attention. Noticeably, these two themes are greatly studied in psychological research but without an educational focus. The developmental trend of the research over a decade suggests that educational researchers may have just started to notice the wide extent to which the eye-tracking method can be applied in the study of learning issues. Our framework also points out that other than the extensive discussions on information processing and instructional strategies, there are many other learning themes that can be explored using eye tracking methods, but which still lack substantive investigations. Since eye-tracking technology is dominantly used in the domain of psychology, there should be a clear push for educational research-ers to make good use of this existing eye movement research. More convresearch-ersations or interactions between psychologists and educational researchers are needed to help extend the scope of the new research application in education.

5.4. The use of eye movement measures in learning-related studies

After analyzing the eye movement measures used in the reviewed studies, temporal measures were found to be used most widely for all the learning themes, followed by count measures, except for the themes of learning strategies and decision mak-ing patterns.Table 4shows the statistical results. This may be due to the fact that temporal and count data were easy to col-lect with the software available and were often used quantitatively. The spatial measures were the least used in the studies, which may be because the spatial indicators (e.g., fixation location and scan path) are typically analyzed in a qualitative way, which is more time and energy consuming. However, spatial measures were used more often than count measures for the themes of learning strategies and decision making patterns. This is reasonable because these two themes involve meta-cogni-tive skills, and to show meta-cognimeta-cogni-tive skills may require more sophisticated observations or analyses of fixation locations and sequences for a better conclusion. Moreover, the choice of eye-tracking measures is often motivated by specific research questions. Different research fields may focus on different types of measures. For example, in the field of reading compre-hension the focus is mostly on temporal measures, while in the field of scene perception the focus is more often on spatial measures. Since the majority of the studies in the pool of this review were related to reading-oriented learning activities, it is Table 4

Use of the eye movement measures related to different learning themes.

Learning theme Temporal Spatial Count

Patterns of information processing 47 22 24

Effects of instructional strategies 47 7 15

Reexaminations of existing theories 17 1 5

Effects of learning strategies 12 3 2

Individual differences 9 1 7

Patterns of decision making 3 3 1

Social cultural effects 3 1 1

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reasonable to obtain this result. In summary, it is important to have clear research questions or hypotheses in order to choose proper eye-tracking measures for examinations.

6. Conclusion

As our study results show, in these eye-tracking studies, the theme of information processing has received the most atten-tion, followed by the effect of instructional strategies. Meanwhile, the number of studies aiming to examine the existing the-ories as well as probing individual differences has grown signiﬁcantly in recent years. Nevertheless, fewer studies have been devoted to analyzing the effects of learning strategies, patterns of decision-making and social/cultural factors. In short, the foci of discussions presented in the reviewed studies seem to revolve around the acquisition of new information. As far as eye movement measures are concerned, the temporal forms provide the major information about the learning processes, although the choice of measures is often motivated by the speciﬁc research question. Our review also indicates that the use of eye tracking methods in studying learning-related issues has proliferated in the recent 3 years. Such a result suggests that the eye tracking method provides a promising channel for educational researchers to connect learning outcomes to rel-evant cognitive processes.

7. Future studies

As the framework indicates, eye-tracking technology is able to reveal various learning themes that describe underlying psychological processes of different learning objectives. However, the unbalanced numbers of studies found across the seven learning themes suggest that more efforts are needed to explore learning topics such as reasoning, skill learning and the ef-fects of social cognition.

Based on our analysis, it is clear that the studies included in our review have successfully employed eye-tracking mea-sures to examine or explore the cognitive processes in various topics within various themes. Temporal indicators were the most frequently used measures across all learning topics and themes. Count and spatial indicators were used depending on the research questions, for example, number of ﬁxations was often used to show attention distribution, while scan paths were used to imply metacognitive strategies. Future studies can continue to explore the correlations between various eye-tracking measures and various learning performance measures. Understanding the above relationships should be the ﬁrst step in applying eye-tracking techniques for further educational studies. Therefore, more studies are needed to build up a connection between the micro-measures (i.e., eye-tracking measures) and the macro-measures (i.e., performance or behav-ioral measures).

AsFig. 2(year-theme histogram) shows, researchers started to extensively examine individual differences in 2011. It appears that patterns of eye movements are good measures to reveal people’s (such as experts vs. novices) distinct cognitive processes. Accordingly, educators can make use of the information about individual differences to develop proper adaptive learning systems that take into consideration learner characteristics. There are studies employing eye movement data of skilled persons to guide others’ attention, but the application is limited to the learning of basic cognitive skills or clinical practice (e.g., Litchﬁeld, Ball, Donovan, Manning, & Crawford, 2010; van Gog, Jarodzka, Scheiter, Gerjets, & Paas 2009). Furthermore, adaptive learning systems with eye-tracking-embedded technology may also be developed in the future to provide dynamic scaffoldings for all students for better learning in all learning domains. For example, interactive learning systems embedded with eye-tracking equipment may dynamically diagnose students’ learning states and needs as well as providing instant help or adapted scaffolding materials according to the eye movement data tracked by the systems.

In addition, data mining techniques such as sequential analyses may be incorporated as an approach for analyzing the huge amount of eye-tracking data. Moreover, visualizations of eye ﬁxation data such as heat maps or hot zone pictures are powerful for demonstrating allocations of visual attention as a whole picture for individual persons or speciﬁc groups of people. Understanding how to make use of the techniques or software is important for educational researchers who are interested in conducting eye-tracking studies. On the other hand, interdisciplinary collaboration across computer engi-neering, visual studies and educational technology is encouraged in the future for developing more user-friendly and useful tools for educational research.

Furthermore, all the eye tracking studies included in the study used only ONE eye tracker in the lab environment, which somewhat restricts the practical use of the equipment in studying interactions between different subjects, and also mini-mizes the generalization of the results for authentic learning. For future studies, researchers could employ two or more eye trackers to investigate social cognition issues (e.g., parent–child interactions during storybook reading) or students’ mo-ment-to-moment eye ﬁxations in realistic classroom settings (e.g., what and where students are looking during teachers’ presentations).

However, considering the high price of eye trackers, which means that they are not easily accessible for educators, we call for the development of lower priced devices that are designed speciﬁcally for educational purposes. Such devices do not need to have a very high sampling rate or complicated data analysis programs, which are usually the reasons for the high cost of eye tracking systems. For most educators, sentences, passages or graphical forms of information are the central regions of interest. In addition, in order to be used in authentic learning environments, eye trackers should allow slight head movements or even full mobility. Considering these needs, a high sampling rate is by no means the absolute criterion for

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choosing an eye tracking system for use in educational settings. Besides, as far as the data analysis software is concerned, col-laboration between software engineers and educational researchers could help to modulate existing data analysis programs, making them suitable for education studies while reducing the cost of software development. In short, it is possible to cut down the price of eye tracking systems if we take into consideration the specific needs and features of educational research. In fact, there are up-and-coming open source eye-trackers that are already available at a fraction of the price of the usual proprietary suppliers. For example, the open-source ITU Gazetracker developed bySan Agustin and associates (2010)is a promising software that can transform web cameras or digital video recorders into eye trackers. Meanwhile, a new wave of computer engineering research is starting the technological revolution of pervasive eye-tracking technology integrated into smart phones, tablets, laptops, etc. It is highly likely that such technological developments will promote eye trackers as easily accessible devices that can be utilized widely in educational contexts. However, without input from educators, these developing technologies could not fulfill the needs of the educational field. Hence, collaboration is required between developers of such technologies and educational researchers.

Finally, we call for attention to the relevant theoretical issues in future studies. In this review, a bridging framework is proposed to show how eye-tracking methods have been applied to educational studies and what studies should be con-ducted to gain more understandings of student learning. One issue that we have not analyzed here concerns the theories underpinning all of these studies. Although not every study explicitly discusses its underlying principles, it is clear that many of the studies reviewed in the paper are based on constructivist and developmental perspectives of learning (e.g.,Amadieu et al., 2009; Blair, Watson, & Meier, 2009; Blair, Watson, Walshe et al., 2009; Kim & Mundy, 2012; Neider & Kramer, 2011), Nevertheless, what exactly the normative learning theories are to guide eye movement studies, what prescriptive theories (e.g., multimedia learning theory, cognitive load theory, etc.) that these studies actually used in their experimental designs, and whether the research ﬁndings support the theories are not analyzed in this study. In addition, as suggested previously, since interdisciplinary and collaborative studies are needed in the future, whether there is a coherent theoretical framework that can guide all such research should be explored. Analyses of the theoretical issues will help educational researchers to appropriately apply the eye tracking methods in their studies. It is hoped that such a review of the theoretical bases will appear in the near future.

Acknowledgement

This study was supported by National Science Council in Taiwan, under the grand numbers of NSC 99 -2511-S-011-006-MY3, NSC 100-2511-S-003-039--2511-S-011-006-MY3, NSC 101-2511-S-011-001-MY2, NSC 101-2631-S-011-002 and NSC 103-2911-1-003-301.

Appendix. Analysis of connection to learning in each reviewed study

ID Author Research questions/ purposes Related learning topic Eye movement measures Performance measures Indication for learning (Learning theme) 1 Amadieu et al. (2009)

This study explored the effects of prior knowledge (high vs. low; HPK and LPK) and concept-map structure (hierarchical vs. network; HS and NS) on disorientation, cognitive load, and learning from non-linear documents on ‘‘the infection process of a retrograde virus (HIV)’’

Conceptual development Total fixation duration, number of fixations, proportion of fixations saccades Test Effects of instructional strategies Individual differences 2 Ariasi and Mason (2011)

This study examined whether reading a refutational or non-refutational text would induce different cognitive processing, as revealed by eye-movement analyses

Conceptual development

First pass duration, total ﬁxation duration,

second pass ﬁxation, total reading time

Pretest and posttest, knowledge test Effects of instructional strategies

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Appendix. Analysis of connection to learning in each reviewed study (continued) ID Author Research questions/

purposes Related learning topic Eye movement measures Performance measures Indication for learning (Learning theme) 3 Arnold et al. (2000)

This study investigated how listeners use gender and accessibility in on-line pronoun comprehension

Language Proportion Accuracy Patterns of information processing 4 van Asselen

et al. (2011)

This study aimed to study how object information can facilitate a visual search during an object-based contextual cueing task

Perception Number of fixations, average number of fixations, fixation duration, total number of saccades, saccade amplitude Response time(RT) Patterns of information processing 5 Balslev et al. (2012)

This study investigated visual attention and associated clinical reasoning processes Conceptual development Percentage of reading time Diagnostic accuracy, think aloud reasoning, time on task Individual differences 6 Bartolotti and Marian (2012)

This study investigated the effect of bilingualism on the ability to control native-language interference Language Proportion of ﬁxations Accuracy, RT Individual differences 7 Beesley and Le Pelley (2010)

This study examined the impact of blocking on overt attention during a human contingency learning task

Perception Location of gaze Accuracy, RT Patterns of information processing 8 Blair, Watson, and Meier (2009)

This study investigated an assumption imbedded in formal models of categorization: error is necessary for attentional learning Meaning-based representations Total ﬁxation duration, ﬁxation position N/A Patterns of information processing 9 Blair, Watson, Walshe, and Maj (2009)

This study investigated the flexibility of learned attention Conceptual development Total fixation duration, number of fixations, average fixation duration, proportion, gaze Accuracy Reexaminations of existing theories 10Blythe et al. (2012)

This study examined whether inserting spaces between words in Chinese text would help children learn to read new vocabulary

Language First fixation duration, gaze duration, total fixation duration, refixation probability, number of regressions Accuracy Effects of instructional strategies 11Blythe et al. (2012)

This study examined whether inserting spaces between words in Chinese text would help children learn to read new vocabulary

Language First fixation duration, gaze duration, total fixation duration, refixation probability, Accuracy Individual differences

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purposes Related learning topic Eye movement measures Performance measures Indication for learning (Learning theme) 12Bolger and Zapata (2011)

This study tested whether and how semantic relatedness inhibits learning given more contexts

Language Fixation duration, gaze,

total gaze duration, ﬁrst-pass gaze duration, number of gazes Accuracy, RT Patterns of information processing 13Boucheix and Lowe (2010)

This study used eye tracking to investigate a novel cueing approach for directing learner attention to low salience, high relevance aspects of a complex animation Conceptual development Total ﬁxation duration, number of ﬁxations, proportion,

total reading time

Test Effects of instructional strategies 14Brandt-Kobele and Höhle (2010)

This study investigated whether German 3- to 4-year-olds take advantage of the information provided by verb inﬂection in sentence comprehension

Language Fixation duration Accuracy, RT Patterns of information processing 15Brockmole and Le-Hoa Võ (2010)

This study investigated how memory for relational contingencies that emerge across different scenes can be exploited to guide attention

Perception Number of ﬁxations, location of ﬁxations, location of gaze Accuracy, RT Patterns of information processing 16Brown-Schmidt (2009)

This study presented the results of three

experiments that re-examine the question of whether partner-specific information is used by early, on-line interpretation processes Language Time to first fixation, total fixation number N/A Patterns of information processing 17Brusnighan and Folk (2012)

This study investigated how skilled readers use contextual and

morphemic information in the process of incidental vocabulary acquisition during reading

Language Average fixation duration, first fixation duration, go-past time, regression, second-pass time Vocabulary test (accuracy, choice time, sentence reading time) Patterns of information processing 18Castelhano and Heaven (2011)

This study investigated the inﬂuence of scene gist, learned spatial

associations and how these sources of information relate

Perception Latency to target, number of fixations, first fixation duration, first gaze duration Accuracy, RT Patterns of information processing

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purposes Related learning topic Eye movement measures Performance measures Indication for learning (Learning theme) 19Chafﬁn et al. (2001)

This study examined how readers established the meaning of a new word from the sentence context during silent reading

Language Total ﬁxation duration, gaze duration, total reading time, number of regressions Test Patterns of information processing 20de Koning et al. (2010)

This study examined how visual attentional resources are allocated when learning from a complex animation Conceptual development Number of ﬁxations, average ﬁxation duration, proportion Comprehension test, transfer test, mental effort question, verbal protocol Effects of instructional strategies 21D’Melloa et al. (2012)

This study evaluated the efﬁcacy of the gaze-reactive tutor in promoting learning, motivation and engagement Conceptual development Gaze position, probability of gaze events Knowledge test, engagement measures, subjective impressions measures, individual difference measures Effects of instructional strategies 22Goldinger et al. (2009)

The goal was to replicate the standard ORB, contrasting recognition memory to Asian and Caucasian faces, as a function of study time

Meaning-based representation Total fixation duration, average fixation duration, number of fixations, proportion, saccade Test, accuracy Patterns of information processing 23Goujon et al. (2012)

This study examined the role of color features (cuing effect), and determining the nature of learning mechanisms

Perception Time to ﬁrst ﬁxation RT,

explicit memory tasks, distance between true and recalled places across different conditions Patterns of information processing 24Grüter et al. (2012)

This study tested whether gender-marking on the determiner facilitates interpretation of the following noun Language Proportion of reading time Language proﬁciency measures, RT Patterns of information processing individual differences 25Guérard et al. (2011)

This study examined the role of awareness in anticipation and recall performance, using the Hebb repetition paradigm

Perception Gaze duration (total ﬁxation duration) Recall performance Patterns of information processing 26Guérard et al. (2009)

This study examined the effect of ocular

suppression on spatial serial recall and the path length effect

Perception Total ﬁxation duration

Accuracy Effects of learning strategies

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purposes Related learning topic Eye movement measures Performance measures Indication for learning (Learning theme) 27Hegarty et al. (2010)

This study examined how bottom-up and top-down processes interact when people view and make inferences from complex visual displays (weather maps) Conceptual development Total fixation duration, number of fixations, locations of fixations Test, RT Effects of instructional strategies 28Henderson et al. (2005)

This study investigated (1) do eye movements facilitate face learning? (2) are the eye-movement patterns generated during face learning recapitulated during recognition? and (3) do eye movements change during face learning and recognition?

Meaning-based representations Total fixation duration, number of fixations, fixation location, proportion, gaze, saccades Accuracy, RT Patterns of information processing 29Herwig and Horstmann (2011)

This study diagnosed whether

participants acquire bidirectional associations between their actions and their actions’ effects: (1) whether saccades and their effects become associated; (2) whether these saccade-effect associations are used to select a saccade Social Cognition Number of saccades, ﬁxation location RT Patterns of information processing 30Hoffman and Rehder (2010)

This study tested the hypothesis that classification training produces less flexible category representations Conceptual development Average fixation duration, proportion, average saccade length Speed Effects of instructional strategies 31Hout and Goldinger (2011)

This study investigated under what conditions during visual search does the incidental learning of BK occur? and what does viewing behavior reveal about the efﬁciency of attentional deployments over time?

Perception Number of fixations, average fixation durations, total fixation duration Token discrimination test (memory test), search RT, recognition accuracy Reexaminations of existing theories 32Hsiao and Cottrell (2008)

This study examined the inﬂuence of the number of ﬁxations on face

recognition performance with participants’ natural eye movements Meaning-based representation Total fixation duration, number of fixations, fixation location, scan path N/A Patterns of information processing

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purposes Related learning topic Eye movement measures Performance measures Indication for learning (Learning theme) 33Huestegge and Koch (2012)

This study investigated what eye movements can tell about the mechanisms of transferring relevant stimuli into memory

Meaning-based representations EXP I: number of fixations, refixation probability, gaze position, fixation duration, saccade length EXP II: number of fixations, average fixation duration, saccade length Accuracy Patterns of information processing 34Isaacowitz and Choi (2012)

This study investigated how age-related changes in attention to negative but relevant information about skin cancer risk reduction inﬂuenced both subsequent health behavior and mood regulation Conceptual development Percentage of ﬁxations Self report mood rating, behavior outcome measures Individual differences 35Jarodzka et al. (2012)

This study applied a novel instructional method to teach these skills by showing the learners how an expert model visually searches for and interprets symptoms

Gaze positions, total time not ﬁxated,

total reading time

Multiple-choice questions Effects of instructional strategies 36Johnson and Mayer (2012)

This study examined how spatial contiguity affects cognitive processing learning, and whether learners who receive an integrated presentation perform better on transfer tests than those who received a separated presentation Conceptual development Scanpaths, proportion of transition, proportion of ﬁxation, total ﬁxation duration Spatial ability tests Effects of instructional strategies 37Jones and Kaschak (2011)

This study examined statistical learning in visual searching

Perception Saccade latencies, saccade locations, number of saccades RT, accuracy Reexaminations of existing theories 38Karacan et al. (2010)

This study examined whether the effect of scene familiarity could be generalized to natural environments. Does familiarity with scene content improve detection of scene changes in a 3D virtual reality

environment?

Perception Total fixation duration, fixation position, time to first fixation

Verbal report Patterns of information processing

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purposes Related learning topic Eye movement measures Performance measures Indication for learning (Learning theme) 39Kelly et al. (2011)

This study explored the origins of cultural differences in eye movements when encoding and recognizing human faces and potential cultural divergence in general face processing strategies

Social cognition

Fixation distribution Accuracy, RT

Social/cultural effects

40Kim and Mundy (2012)

This study measured two types of JA in adults, Initiating Joint Attention (IJA) and Responding to Joint Attention

Social cognition

Total reading time Memory test (standardized spatial working memory task)

Social/cultural effects

41Kim and Rehder (2011)

This study used eye tracking during knowledge-based category learning to determine (1) whether knowledge does indeed have any effect on selective attention; (2) whether any effect of knowledge on attention is limited to which sources of information learners initially consider or whether it can emerge as a result of experience with category members; (3) whether error feedback is required to mediate those shifts Conceptual development Number of fixations, proportion fixation, proportion fixation duration Accuracy, RT Individual differences 42Koenig and Lachnit (2011)

This study assessed the effect of memory interference on saccadic curvature

Perception Saccade N/A Patterns of information processing 43Lee and

Anderson(2001)

This study monitored the eye movements of people performing the KAATC task to see whether the learning in this task could also be explained by the attentional learning hypothesis Psychomotor learning Total ﬁxation duration N/A Effects of learning strategies Reexaminations of existing theories 44Lewis and Mensink (2012)

This study investigated whether readers direct additional attention to and learn more from sentences that are potentially relevant to a set of pre-reading questions Conceptual development First-pass progressive ﬁxations, ﬁrst-pass reinspections lookbacks N/A Effects of instructional strategies

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purposes Related learning topic Eye movement measures Performance measures Indication for learning (Learning theme) 45Liu and Chuang(2011)

This study explored learners’ information processing patterns when the information is encoded in different formats and uncovered how different forms of presentations affect learners’ processing of information in multimedia learning environments Meaning-based representation Number of fixations, fixation duration, location of fixations, number of saccades, total number of saccades, saccade length RT Patterns of information processing

46Liu and Shen (2011)

This study investigated students’ learning process of the concept of

concentration at the elementary school level in Taiwan Conceptual development Scanpath, total ﬁxation duration, average ﬁxation duration, total saccade duration,

total blink duration, total reading time, average saccade duration, average blink duration Interview Effects of instructional strategies

47Liu et al. (2011)This study aimed to determine the impact of redundant onscreen text information on viewers’ cognitive processes with respect to multimedia information Conceptual development Number of fixations, fixation duration, average fixation duration N/A Patterns of information processing 48Meyer et al. (2010)

This study tested whether the presentation speed affects differences in visual attention Conceptual development Total ﬁxation duration, proportion, total gaze duration

Test Effects of instructional strategies 49Miller and

Cassady (2012)

This study examined strategies associated with deciding which of two NFPs, presented side-by-side, was healthier

Casual Reasoning Frequency of saccades, scanpath Knowledge test, motivation test Decision making patterns 50Miwa et al. (2011)

This study reported a method for closely observing, eliciting and visualizing exploratory search processes with embedded information encountered in context

Gaze point, gaze duration (total ﬁxation duration) Interview, questionnaire, think-aloud, link depth Effects of learning strategies

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purposes Related learning topic Eye movement measures Performance measures Indication for learning (Learning theme) 51Mou et al. (2009)

This study investigated whether the spatial reference directions that are used to specify objects’ locations in memory can be solely determined by layout geometry. Perception Locations of ﬁxations, scanpath N/A Patterns of information processing

52Mu (2010) This study explored users’ video note-taking behaviors and examined the effect of the new Smartlink design Psychomotor learning Gaze (ﬁxation position) scanpath Reaction time, personal note, discussion transcript Effects of instructional strategies Patterns of information processing 53Nakabayashi et al. (2012)

This study examined the influences of verbalization on face learning or recognition processes Social cognition Number of fixations, fixation time, total reading time

N/A Social/cultural effect

54Neider and Kramer (2011)

This study investigated (1) Do older adults still possess the ability to use preexisting spatial associations inherent in the target object and search scene in order to augment their search performance, and if so, are the performance beneﬁts similar to those shown by younger adults? (2) If older adults prove able to use contextual

information, what is the time course of such usage?

Psychomotor learning Number of ﬁxations, total ﬁxation duration, initial saccades, gaze location Accuracy (error rate), RT Effects of learning strategies Individual differences 55Ooms et al. (2012)

This study aimed to obtain insight into users’ cognitive processes while working with dynamic and interactive maps

Mean ﬁxation duration,

mean ﬁxation count, ﬁxation distribution

RT Individual differences

56Ozcelik et al. (2009)

This study investigated the underlying cause of the color coding effect by utilizing eye movement data Conceptual development Average fixation duration, time to first fixations, total fixation duration Test Effects of instructional strategies 57Ozcelik et al. (2010)

This study aimed to examine the effects of signaling on learning outcomes and to reveal the underlying reasons for this effect by using eye movement measures Conceptual development Total fixation duration, number of fixation, average fixation duration, time to first fixation, probability Prior knowledge test, retention test, transfer test, (open-ended question) matching test Effects of instructional strategies

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purposes Related learning topic Eye movement measures Performance measures Indication for learning (Learning theme) 58Pradhan et al. (2011)

This study investigated whether a rather simple, one hour PC-based training program using error learning as a key component would reduce the number of especially long glances away from the forward roadway on the open road

Psychomotor learning Number of ﬁxations, ﬁxation duration, number of gazes, gaze duration, gaze location RT Effects of instructional strategies 59Rehder and Hoffman (2005a)

This study investigated whether participants would limit their attention to only those stimulus dimensions needed to classify each structure and whether the changes in eye movements during learning would support a gradual or rule-based learning account

Proportion N/A Reexaminations of existing theories

60Rehder et al. (2009)

This study distinguished between CCL (category-centered learning hypothesis) and the alternative category-to-feature rule hypothesis using an eye tracker

Conceptual development Total ﬁxation duration, average ﬁxation duration, proportion, probability N/A Reexaminations of existing theories 61Rehder and Hoffman (2005b)

This study tested D. L. Medin and M. M. Schaffer’s (1978) 5–4 category structure (indicating the superiority of multiplicative prototype, MPM) Meaning-based representations Total fixation duration, number of fixations, average fixation duration, proportion Accuracy Reexaminations of existing theories 62Renkewitz and Jahn (2012)

This study investigated memory-based decision making processes Casual Reasoning Scanpath, total ﬁxation durations, proportion of total reading time Decision patterns, decision time Decision making patterns 63Roderer and Roebers (2010)

This study investigated the effects of memory retrieval processes on monitoring judgments, item difﬁculty in a vocabulary learning task

Causal Reasoning

Fixation duration, gaze,

gaze paths (gaze)

Accuracy, RT Decision making patterns 64Roderer et al. (2012)

This study explored selectivity in encoding, aspects of attentional control and their contribution to learning performance

Perception average ﬁxation duration Recognition of target items, accuracy, RT Patterns of information processing