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Humans have the unique ability to discern spatial and temporal regularities in their surroundings. However, the effect of learning these regularities on eye movement characteristics has not been studied enough. In the present study, we investigated the effect of the frequency of occurrence and the presence of common chunks in visual images on eye movement characteristics like the fixation duration, saccade amplitude and number, and gaze number across sequential experimental epochs. The participants had to discriminate the patterns presented in pairs as the same or different. The order of pairs was repeated six times. Our results show an increase in fixation duration and a decrease in saccade amplitude in the sequential epochs, suggesting a transition from ambient to focal information processing as participants acquire knowledge. This transition indicates deeper cognitive engagement and extended analysis of the stimulus information. Interestingly, contrary to our expectations, the saccade number increased, and the gaze number decreased. These unexpected results might imply a reduction in the memory load and a narrowing of attentional focus when the relevant stimulus characteristics are already determined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans have the unique ability to discern spatial and temporal regularities in their surroundings. However, the effect of learning these regularities on eye movement characteristics has not been studied enough. In the present study, we investigated the effect of the frequency of occurrence and the presence of common chunks in visual images on eye movement characteristics like the fixation duration, saccade amplitude and number, and gaze number across sequential experimental epochs. The participants had to discriminate the patterns presented in pairs as the same or different. The order of pairs was repeated six times. Our results show an increase in fixation duration and a decrease in saccade amplitude in the sequential epochs, suggesting a transition from ambient to focal information processing as participants acquire knowledge. This transition indicates deeper cognitive engagement and extended analysis of the stimulus information. Interestingly, contrary to our expectations, the saccade number increased, and the gaze number decreased. These unexpected results might imply a reduction in the memory load and a narrowing of attentional focus when the relevant stimulus characteristics are already determined.

Time course analysis of eye movements during free exploration of real-world scenes often reveals an increase in fixation durations together with a decrease in saccade amplitudes, which has been explained within the two visual systems approach, i.e., a transition from ambient to focal. Short fixations and long saccades during early viewing periods are classified as ambient mode of vision, which is concerned with spatial orientation and is related to simple visual properties such as motion, contrast, and location. Longer fixations and shorter saccades during later viewing periods are classified as focal mode of vision, which is concentrated in the foveal projection and is capable of object identification and its semantic categorization. While these findings are mainly obtained in the context of image exploration, the present study endeavors to investigate whether the same pattern of interplay between ambient and focal visual attention is deployed when people work on complex real-world tasks--and if so, when? Based on a re-analysis of existing data that integrates concurrent think aloud and eye tracking protocols, the present study correlated participants' internal thinking models to the parameters of their eye movements when they planned solutions to an open-ended design problem in a real-world setting. We hypothesize that switching between ambient and focal attentional processing is useful when solvers encounter difficulty compelling them to shift their conceptual direction to adjust the solution path. Individuals may prefer different attentional strategies for information-seeking behavior, such as ambient-to-focal or focal-to-ambient. The observed increase in fixation durations and decrease in saccade amplitudes during the periods around shifts in conceptual direction lends support to the postulation of the ambient-to-focal processing; however, focal-to-ambient processing is not evident. Furthermore, our data demonstrate that the beginning of a shift in conceptual direction is observable in eye movement behavior with a significant prolongation of fixation. Our findings add to the conclusions drawn from laboratory settings by providing preliminary evidence for ambient and focal processing characteristics in realworld problem-solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, advertising is regarded as one of the vital elements of marketing tools' promotional strategies. Therefore, advertising is very important to businesses' marketing strategies and policies. In light of this, the purpose of the current study was to ascertain the influence of endorsers' gender and the level of attention given to various aspects of advertising. A quasi-experimental study was used for the current investigation. All students at Mashhad's Ferdowsi University made up the study's statistical population. 80 students were chosen as the research sample out of the entire student body. Eye motions were captured using an eye tracking gadget. According to research findings, the number and length of fixes on advertisement items were significantly influenced by the popularity of their endorsers. However, there was no statistically significant difference between the genders in terms of the quantity and length of fixations. These conclusions suggest that the popularity of the endorser is a key factor in commercials, but that the endorser's gender has little effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eye-movements provide unique information on the understating of human behavior and food choices. Analysis of gazing behavior has been proven to be a successful tool to predict eye-movements or to analyze the effects of certain factors on purchase behavior, choice or opinions. In the current papers we introduce a case study on the analysis of gazing behavior, more precisely the analysis of time to first fixations and fixations durations, to understand the effects of scents/odors on eye-movements. The presented study was part of a larger set of studies and focuses on a four alternative forced choice task, that included four differently branded and flavored yoghurt products, while strawberry odor was/was not sprayed into the air. The analysis revealed that time to first fixations shortened when strawberry odor was present and the length first fixation increased for the strawberry flavored product when the odor was present. The results support the hypothesis that aroma compounds have significant effect on visual attention, however, they do not show significant effect on food choices, as these are driven by a myriad of other factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often exhibit difficulty in movement preparation and allocating attention towards different Regions of Interest (ROIs) of a visual stimulus. Though research has alluded to differences in movement preparation for aiming tasks between individuals with ASD and typically developing (TD) individuals, there is limited evidence (true for near-aiming tasks) on the contribution of the window (i.e., time duration) of movement preparation (i.e., the planning window preceding movement initiation) on one’s aiming performance. However, investigation of the contribution of this planning window on one’s performance in far-aiming task remains as majorly unexplored. Again, often one’s eye movement leads the initiation of hand movement (for task execution) indicating the importance of monitoring one’s eye movement in the planning stage, critical for far-aiming task. Most of the studies (in conventional settings) examining the role of gaze behavior on aiming performance have involved TD individuals and only a few involving individuals with ASD. Here, we have designed Virtual Reality (VR)-based Gaze-sensitive far-aiming (dart throw) task and monitored the looking pattern of participants while they interacted with the task environment. We carried out a study with 40 participants (20 in each of ASD and TD groups) to understand how the participant groups differed in task performance and gaze fixation within the movement planning window. We observed difference in the scan path and last fixation within the movement planning window before triggering the release of the dart with relevance to task performance.

Introduction: Asymmetries in processing by the healthy brain demonstrate regularities that facilitate the modeling of brain operations. The goal of the present study was to determine asymmetries in saccadic metrics during visual exploration, devoid of confounding clutter in the visual field. Methods: Twenty healthy adults searched for a small, low-contrast gazecontingent target on a blank computer screen. The target was visible, only if eye fixation was within a 5 deg. by 5 deg. area of the target’s location. Results: Replicating previously-reported asymmetries, repeated measures contrast analyses indicated that up-directed saccades were executed earlier, were smaller in amplitude, and had greater probability than down-directed saccades. Given that saccade velocities are confounded by saccade amplitudes, it was also useful to investigate saccade kinematics of visual exploration, as a function of vertical saccade direction. Saccade kinematics were modeled for each participant, as a square root relationship between average saccade velocity (i.e., average velocity between launching and landing of a saccade) and corresponding saccade amplitude (Velocity = S*[Saccade Amplitude]0.5). A comparison of the vertical scaling parameter (S) for up- and down-directed saccades showed that up-directed saccades tended to be slower than down-directed ones. Discussion: To motivate future research, an ecological theory of asymmetric presaccadic inhibition was presented to explain the collection of vertical saccadic regularities. For example, given that the theory proposes strong inhibition for the releasing of reflexive down-directed prosaccades (cued by an attracting peripheral target below eye fixation), and weak inhibition for the releasing of up-directed prosaccades (cued by an attracting peripheral target above eye fixation), a prediction for future studies is longer reaction times for vertical anti-saccade cues above eye fixation. Finally, the present study with healthy individuals demonstrates a rationale for further study of vertical saccades in psychiatric disorders, as bio-markers for brain pathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Reading difficulties are commonly reported in Parkinson's disease (PD). So far, only a few studies have assessed reading in PD, most of them confirming a different pattern in patients compared with healthy populations. Impaired oculomotor control is an early feature of PD. Cognitive deficits, on the other hand, may appear early, but they are most prominent at later stages. Although these two factors are thought to be responsible for the alterations in reading performance, it is unclear how each factor contributes to them. Objectives: To evaluate eye movements during reading in PD and healthy controls (HCs). Methods: Data from 42 HCs (36% men) and 48 patients with PD (67% men) at Hoehn and Yahr stages ≤3 were analyzed. PD participants were further divided into 2 groups based on their Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score using a cutoff of ≥26. Eye movements were recorded with Tobii Pro Spectrum, a screen‐based eye tracker with a sampling rate of 1200 Hz. Results: PD participants performed fewer fixations per second (P = 0.033), with a longer mean (P = 0.037) and standard deviation fixation duration (P = 0.033) than HC, and further analysis showed that only patients with a lower MoCA score performed worse than HCs. Reading parameters were weakly associated with MoCA scores, irrespective of age and education. Conclusion: Changes in the reading pattern of PD patients are probably attributed to cognitive rather than pure oculomotor alterations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

IntroductionAsymmetries in processing by the healthy brain demonstrate regularities that facilitate the modeling of brain operations. The goal of the present study was to determine asymmetries in saccadic metrics during visual exploration, devoid of confounding clutter in the visual field.MethodsTwenty healthy adults searched for a small, low-contrast gaze-contingent target on a blank computer screen. The target was visible, only if eye fixation was within a 5 deg. by 5 deg. area of the target’s location.ResultsReplicating previously-reported asymmetries, repeated measures contrast analyses indicated that up-directed saccades were executed earlier, were smaller in amplitude, and had greater probability than down-directed saccades. Given that saccade velocities are confounded by saccade amplitudes, it was also useful to investigate saccade kinematics of visual exploration, as a function of vertical saccade direction. Saccade kinematics were modeled for each participant, as a square root relationship between average saccade velocity (i.e., average velocity between launching and landing of a saccade) and corresponding saccade amplitude (Velocity = S*[Saccade Amplitude]0.5). A comparison of the vertical scaling parameter (S) for up- and down-directed saccades showed that up-directed saccades tended to be slower than down-directed ones.DiscussionTo motivate future research, an ecological theory of asymmetric pre-saccadic inhibition was presented to explain the collection of vertical saccadic regularities. For example, given that the theory proposes strong inhibition for the releasing of reflexive down-directed prosaccades (cued by an attracting peripheral target below eye fixation), and weak inhibition for the releasing of up-directed prosaccades (cued by an attracting peripheral target above eye fixation), a prediction for future studies is longer reaction times for vertical anti-saccade cues above eye fixation. Finally, the present study with healthy individuals demonstrates a rationale for further study of vertical saccades in psychiatric disorders, as bio-markers for brain pathology.

Previous research has demonstrated that individuals with high levels of Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) have difficulty updating threat associations to safety associations. Notably, prior research has focused on measuring IU-related differences in threat and safety learning using arousal-based measures such as skin conductance response. Here we assessed whether IU-related differences in threat and safety learning could be captured using eye-tracking metrics linked with gaze behaviours such as dwelling and scanning. Participants (N = 144) completed self-report questionnaires assessing levels of IU and trait anxiety. Eye movements were then recorded during each conditioning phase: acquisition, extinction learning, and extinction retention. Fixation count and fixation duration served as indices of conditioned responding. Patterns of threat and safety learning typically reported for physiology and self-report were observed for the fixation count and fixation duration metrics during acquisition and to some extent in extinction learning, but not for extinction retention. There was little evidence for specific associations between IU and disrupted safety learning (e.g., greater differential responses to the threat vs. safe cues during extinction learning and retention). While there was tentative evidence that IU was associated with shorter fixation durations (e.g., scanning) to threat vs. safe cues during extinction retention, this effect did not remain after controlling for trait anxiety. IU and trait anxiety similarly predicted greater fixation count and shorter fixation durations overall during extinction learning, and greater fixation count overall during extinction retention. IU further predicted shorter fixation durations overall during extinction retention. However, the only IU-based effect that remained significant after controlling for trait anxiety was that of fixation duration overall during threat extinction learning. Our results inform models of anxiety, particularly in relation to how individual differences modulate gaze behaviour during threat conditioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highway intersections are crash prone locations, and drivers’ improper attention allocation and sudden increase of mental workload are main contributing factors. To explore the visual scanning characteristics and mental workload of drivers at prairie highway intersections with different characteristics, an on-road driving test was taken at 6 intersections scattered on a typical prairie highway with 3 different shapes and 2 different priority rules, and drivers’ eye movement and ECG data were collected. The results show that there is significant difference in fixation allocation and transferring among intersections with different shapes and priority rules. The X-shaped intersection without the right of way shows the longest average fixation duration and the most gaze shifts between the drivers’ lane and the intersection road, whereas the three-way intersection with the right of way shows the shortest fixation duration and the gaze transfer path is relatively simple and the transfers are less. The mental workload implies almost the same conclusion, with the X-shaped intersection without right of way shows the highest mental workload which is manifested by largest heart rate growth rate and the lowest RMSSD, whereas the three-way with priority of way shows the opposite trend. This study revealed that both intersection types and priority rule made differences in drivers’ scanning behavior and mental workload at prairie highway intersections, which can support the development of appropriate countermeasures regarding the applications in advanced driver assistance systems and the design of intersection constructions to warn drivers about potential critical events at different types of intersections.

Non‐invasive, transcutaneous electrical stimulation of the auricular branch of the vagus nerve (taVNS) via the ear is used therapeutically in epilepsy, pain, and depression, and may also have beneficial effects on social cognition. However, the underlying mechanisms of taVNS are unclear and evidence regarding its role in social cognition improvement is limited. To investigate the impact of taVNS on social cognition we have studied its effects on gaze toward emotional faces in combination with eye‐tracking and on the release of the neuropeptide oxytocin which plays a key role in influencing social cognition and motivation. A total of 54 subjects were enrolled (49 were included in the final analysis) in a sham‐controlled, participant‐blind, crossover experiment, consisting of two treatment sessions 1 week apart. In one session participants received 30‐min taVNS (tragus), and in the other, they received 30‐min sham (earlobe) stimulation with the treatment order counterbalanced. The proportion of time spent viewing the faces and facial features (eyes, nose, and mouth) was measured together with resting pupil size. Additionally, saliva samples were taken for the measurement of oxytocin concentrations by enzyme‐linked immunoassay. Saliva oxytocin concentrations increased significantly after taVNS compared to sham stimulation, while resting pupil size did not. In addition, taVNS increased time spent viewing the nose region irrespective of face emotion, and this was positively correlated with increased saliva oxytocin concentrations. Our findings suggest that taVNS biases visual attention toward socially salient facial features across different emotions and this is associated with its effects on increasing endogenous oxytocin release. Our findings elucidate the mechanism underlying the effects of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) on social cognition. We found that taVNS increased visual attention toward socially salient facial features across different emotions and this is associated with its effects on increasing endogenous oxytocin release, suggesting that taVNS may be a promising therapeutic treatment for disorders with social dysfunctions (i.e., autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVE: Relevant Meta-analyses have reported that there is a significant negative fixation pattern in depressed patients, but it is unclear about the magnitude of this pattern and the difference in gaze indicators under different stimuli. To this end, the article systematically evaluates the gaze characteristics of eye tracking in patients with depression under different emotional tasks, providing a reference for clinical outcome and prognostic evaluation. METHODS: PubMed, The Cochrane Library, EMbase, Web of science, CBM, CNKI, WanFang Database, and VIP database were electronically searched to collect case-control studies on eye tracking in depressive patients from their inception to September 5th, 2021. Two researchers independently screened literature, extracted data and the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to evaluate the quality of the included studies. Meta-analysis was performed by using RevMan5.4 software. RESULTS: A total of 12 case-control studies were included, in which 231 subjects (depressed patients) were in the case group and 307 in the control group. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale scores of the included studies were 5 and above, indicating a higher quality of the included studies. The results of Meta-analysis showed that: for different stimulus types, compared with the control group, the fixation duration of depressed patients was significantly reduced under the positive stimulus [Standardized mean difference (SMD)positive=-1.00, 95% confidence interval (CI) (-1.88, -0.12), P=0.03], and was significantly increased under the negative stimulus [SMDnegative=0.77, 95% CI (0.50, 1.04), P < 0.000 01]. There was no significant difference in fixation duration under the neutral stimulus [SMDneutral=-0.17, 95%CI (-0.48, 0.14), P=0.28]. There was no significant difference in the first fixation duration between the case and control groups [SMDpositive=0.18, 95% CI (-0.25, 0.61), P=0.42; SMDneutral=-0.19, 95% CI (-0.46, 0.08), P=0.17; SMDnegative=0.24, 95% CI (-0.04, 0.52), P=0.09]. Compared with the control group, depressed patients showed a significant reduction in the fixation counts under positive and neutral stimuli [SMDpositive=-3.65, 95% CI (-4.59, -2.71), P < 0.000 01; SMDneutral=-1.08, 95% CI (-1.61, -0.56), P < 0.000 1), while the fixation counts in depressed patients increased significantly under negative stimuli [SMDnegative=1.32, 95% CI (0.78, 1.86), P < 0.000 01]. CONCLUSION: There are significant differences in the fixation patterns between depression and healthy individuals, mainly in terms of fixation duration and fixation count. Future studies can explore more eye movement indicators and characteristics of fixation patterns in depressed patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current meta-analysis was conducted on 12 studies comparing the eye movements of expert versus non-expert musicians and attempted to determine which eye movement measures are expertise dependent during music reading. The total dataset of 61 comparisons was divided into four subsets, each concerning one eye-movement variable (i.e., fixation duration, number of fixations, saccade amplitude, and gaze duration). We used a variance estimation method to aggregate the effect sizes. The results support the robust finding of reduced fixation duration in expert musicians (Subset 1, g = -0.72). Due to low statistical power because of limited effect sizes, the results on the number of fixations, saccade amplitude, and gaze duration were not reliable. We conducted meta-regression analyses to determine potential moderators of the effect of expertise on eye movements (i.e., definition of experimental groups, type of musical task performed, type of musical material used or tempo control). Moderator analyses did not yield any reliable results. The need for consistency in the experimental methodology is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current meta-analysis was conducted on 12 studies comparing the eye movements of expert versus non-expert musicians and attempted to determine which eye movement measures are expertise dependent during music reading. The total dataset of 61 comparisons was divided into four subsets, each concerning one eye-movement variable (i.e., fixation duration, number of fixations, saccade amplitude, and gaze duration). We used a variance estimation method to aggregate the effect sizes. The results support the robust finding of reduced fixation duration in expert musicians (Subset 1, g = -0.72). Due to low statistical power because of limited effect sizes, the results on the number of fixations, saccade amplitude, and gaze duration were not reliable. We conducted meta-regression analyses to determine potential moderators of the effect of expertise on eye movements (i.e., definition of experimental groups, type of musical task performed, type of musical material used or tempo control). Moderator analyses did not yield any reliable results. The need for consistency in the experimental methodology is discussed. *The first two authors equally contributed to the first authorship

Many eye tracking studies of visual search have focused on the role of the number of fixations and the nature of scan paths. Less attention has been paid to fixation durations and to how those durations are affected by stimulus features. Previous studies have shown that fixation durations can be as important as the number of fixations in explaining search times with complex stimuli (e.g., in search for specific faces). In the present study, simple stimuli were used in a search experiment where participants searched for a closed ring among rings with a gap. We manipulated distractor heterogeneity (DH), target-distractor similarity (TDS), and stimulus density (SDY, set size within a constant search window), and estimated the contributions of these factors to gaze behaviour and trial search time. The results show that fixation durations contribute less to variation in overall search time with simple search stimuli as compared to previous studies with more complex stimuli. However, fixation durations still increased with DH, TDS, and SDY. These effects were mainly additive, and we did not find an interaction between DH and closer element spacing at high levels of SDY that might have been expected since both DH and SDY influence distractor grouping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drivers collect information of road and traffic conditions through a visual search while driving to avoid any potential hazards they perceive. Novice drivers with lack of driving experience may be involved in a car accident as they misjudge the information obtained by insufficient visual search with a narrower field of vision than experienced drivers do. In this regard, the current study compared and identified the gap between novice and experienced drivers in regard to the information they obtained in a visual search of gaze movement and visual attention. A combination of a static analysis, based on the dwell time, fixation duration, the number of fixations and stationary gaze entropy in visual search, and a dynamic analysis using gaze transition entropy was applied. The static analysis on gaze indicated that the group of novice drivers showed a longer dwell time on the traffic lights, pedestrians, and passing vehicles, and a longer fixation duration on the navigation system and the dashboard than the experienced ones. Also, the novice had their eyes fixed on the area of interests straight ahead more frequently while driving at an intersection. In addition, the novice group demonstrated less information at 2.60 bits out of the maximum stationary gaze entropy of 3.32 bits that a driver can exhibit, which indicated that their gaze fixations were concentrated. Meanwhile, the experienced group displayed approx. 3.09 bits, showing that their gaze was not narrowed on a certain area of interests, but was relatively evenly distributed. The dynamic analysis results showed that the novice group conducted the most gaze transitions between traffic lights, pedestrians and passing vehicles, whereas experienced drivers displayed the most transitions between the right- and left-side mirrors, passing vehicles, pedestrians, and traffic lights to find more out about the surrounding traffic conditions. In addition, the experienced group (3.04 bits) showed a higher gaze transition entropy than the novice group (2.21 bits). This indicated that a larger entropy was required to understand the visual search data because visual search strategies changed depending on the situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tinghu Kang, Ping Wang, Hui Zhang Visual Cognition Laboratory, School of Psychology, Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Ping WangGraduate Apartment, Northwest Normal University, Anning District, Lanzhou City, Gansu Province, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86-18893842473Email 137053602@qq.comPurpose: Calligraphy is the most unique form of artistic expression in Chinese culture. However, most studies that used calligraphy as a research object only explored its artistic value from an artistic perspective. Thus, we know little about the information processing and influencing factors of calligraphic perception. Thus, we aimed to determine whether there are differences in attention distribution due to cognitive style in the process of calligraphic perception.Methods: The calligraphy of Lan Ting Ji Xu, which is known as the first running script in the history of Chinese calligraphy, was selected as the experimental material. The study used eye movement experiments to explore the differences in cognitive styles of attention distribution when perceiving calligraphy, through the analysis of eye movement data of participants.Results: The results showed that field-independent participants had more fixation duration, number of fixations, and saccade angle when they perceived calligraphic works than those who were field-dependent. In other words, field-independent individuals spend more attention resources in the perceptual process. In addition, through data analysis, it was found that fixation duration, number of fixations, and saccade angle in the middle position of calligraphy are larger than the data on both sides of the calligraphy. In other words, when individuals perceive calligraphy, the content in the middle position can attract more attention resources than those on both sides.Conclusion: We found that individuals with different cognitive styles have differences in attention distribution in the process of perceiving calligraphy.Keywords: Chinese characters, field-dependent, field-independent, fixation duration, saccade angles

A logo epitomizes a brand and depicts the picture of a product; consequently, attention, as an initial step of the AIDA model, to the logo is a good-looking index to survey the cognitive processing during consumers’ decision-making. Eye tracker extracts the visual attention data. For these reasons and appreciated from fixation duration, in the present study, the process of visual attention to the logo of a brand during decision-making was studied. To analyze the effects of the popularity of a brand on consumers’ decision-making, visual attention of 53 undergraduate students was studied. The brands were selected from two categories of beverages: soft drinks and non-alcoholic beers. Prior to the test, the participants had declared their favorite categories. The results showed that 75% of the participants selected a popular brand of their unfavorite categories. On the other hand, the difference of fixation duration between logos of popular and unknown brands did not directly relate to the choices of the participants. Therefore, these results did not correspond with the AIDA model. Additionally, cognitive processing toward the unknown brands’ logos was more than the popular brands’ logos. Moreover, the consumers who changed their decision were subjected to more cognitive processing compared to the consumers who insisted on their selection. In contrast to the AIDA model which implies that decision-making is triggered by attention, the present study indicated that decision making can also be influenced by the popularity of the brand. This can be due to optimization of the working memory usage by the brain. Finally, these results could be helpful in creating a new brand. According to the AIDA model, the more attractive logo and package of the brand, the more chance for being selected by the customers. However, our findings emphasize the importance of the popularity of the brand.

Many studies have been conducted to find approaches to overcome the Uncanny Valley. However, the focus on the influence of the robot's appearance leaves a big missing part: the influence of the robot's nonverbal behaviour. This impedes the complete exploration of the Uncanny Valley. In this study, we explored the Uncanny Valley from the viewpoint of the robot's nonverbal behaviour in regard to the Uncanny Valley hypothesis. We observed a relationship between the participants' ratings on human-likeness of the robot's nonverbal behavior and affinity toward the robot's nonverbal behavior, and define the point where the affinity toward the robot's nonverbal behavior significantly drops down as the Uncanny Valley. In this study, an experiment of human–robot interaction was conducted. The participants were asked to interact with a robot with different nonverbal behaviours, ranging from 0 (no nonverbal behavior, speaking only) to 3 (gaze, head nodding, and gestures) combinations and to rate the perceived human-likeness and affinity toward the robot's nonverbal behavior by using a questionnaire. Additionally, the participants' fixation duration was measured during the experiment. The result showed a biphasic relationship between human-likeness and affinity rating results. A curve resembling the Uncanny Valley is found. The result was also supported by participants' fixation duration. It showed that the participants had the longest fixation at the robot when the robot expressed the nonverbal behaviours that fall into the Uncanny Valley. This exploratory study provides evidence suggesting the existence of the Uncanny Valley from the viewpoint of the robot's nonverbal behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we explored eye movement strategies that lead to betterperformance in face recognition with hidden Markov models(HMMs). Participants performed a standard face recognitionmemory task with eye movements recorded. The durationsand locations of the fixations were analyzed using HMMs forboth the study and the test phases. Results showed that in thestudy phase, the participants who looked more often at theeyes and shifted between different regions on the face withlong fixation durations had better performances. The testphase analyses revealed that an efficient, short first orientingfixation followed by a more analytic pattern focusing mainlyon the eyes led to better performances. These strategies couldnot be revealed by analysis methods that do not take individualdifferences in both temporal and spatial dimensions of eyemovements into account, demonstrating the power of theHMM approach.

The mechanisms involved in expertise in the last decade have received a great deal of attention of researchers. They try to understand how performers are able to deal with complex tasks and overcome limitations to become highly skilled. The aim of this study was to compare gaze behaviors and decision making skill among skilled (n=12) and novice (n=12) football players. 24 male football players (age range: 19-25 years old) took part in the study and were divided into two groups of experts and novices. Participants watched images of different situations and provided their prediction of the desired kicks by choosing the right key in the shortest time possible. The number and duration of fixations and the accuracy and speed of decision making were recorded using Eye Tracking and Reaction Time device. The results of ANOVA on decision making skill showed a significant difference between the two groups in their decision making speed and accuracy, but the results of the gaze behaviors showed no significant difference in the number and duration of fixations between the two groups. These results showed that expert players are able to select the appropriate signs of the screen based on a considerable amount of perception. In addition, the results of this study showed that expert players show higher perception of vision and better decision making than novice players.

Driving is a complex task performed in a dynamic environment whereby visuospatial information is a critical aspect of driver cognition. Drivers' interaction with the in-vehicle interfaces challenges their ability to respond to the dynamic traffic scenes efficiently. This study examines the effect of in-vehicle object and spatial distractions on drivers' gaze behavior and driving performance. An experimental paradigm named as direction following in distracted driving – object and spatial (D3-OS) was developed for this study. An instrumented vehicle was voluntarily driven by 47 drivers on a two-lane test-track (data from seven participants were invalid, hence not included in the analysis). Four direction signboards were installed on the left side along the track and the drivers were required to drive according to the directions displayed on these signboards. Drivers were instructed to provide responses to the distracting stimuli shown on an in-vehicle display monitor that was attached to the dashboard. Novice and expert drivers (20 in each group) were randomly assigned to object and spatial distractions. The results demonstrate that compared to spatial distraction, during object distraction, fixation durations and fixation counts on area of interest (AOI) are significantly reduced and driving errors (i.e., both slips and lapses) are significantly increased. Novice drivers committed significantly more slips and lapses as compared to expert drivers. Furthermore, an increased cognitive workload (CWL) is associated with an increase in the occurrence of slips and lapses. On the whole, the results of the study signify the importance of strict enforcement of traffic regulations related to distracted driving more stringently in the case of novice drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on consumer reading (i.e., visual patterns) of Asian restaurant menus is new territory for academic research. This study is the first attempt to scrutinize consumers' visual patterns toward restaurant menus varied by the combination of page orientation (landscape vs. portrait) and menu script (horizontal vs. vertical). Based on existing menus, four distinct versions were created and tested on 54 participants, while collecting eye-tracking measures. After applying the twoway ANOVA, we found that page orientation, menu scripts, and their interaction do not cause a significant impact on the average total fixation time of the participants. Contingency table tests and the oneway ANOVA reveal that a sweet spot and sour spot exist on three of the four menus studied. 对亚洲餐厅菜单的消费者阅读（即视觉模式）;的研究是学术研究的 新领域. 这项研究是第一次尝试仔细研究消费者对餐厅菜单的视觉 模式, 这种模式因页面方向（横向与纵向）;和菜单脚本（水平与垂 直）;的组合而变化° 在现有菜单的基础上, 我们制作了四个不同版本 的菜单, 并在54名参与者身上进行了测试, 同时收集了眼球跟踪的测 量数据. 在应用双向方差分析后, 我们发现页面方向、菜单脚本及其 交互作用对参与者的平均总注视时间没有显著影响. 列联表检验和 单因素方差分析表明, 在所研究的四种菜单中, 有三种存在甜点和酸 点. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prospective memory (PM), the memory for delayed intentions, develops during childhood. The current study examined PM processes, such as monitoring, PM cue identification and intention retrieval with particular focus on their temporal dynamics and interrelations during successful and unsuccessful PM performance. We analysed eye movements of 6–7 and 9–10 year olds during the inspection of movie stills while they completed one of three different tasks: scene viewing followed by a snippet allocation task, a PM task and a visual search task. We also tested children's executive functions of inhibition, flexibility and working memory. We found that older children outperformed younger children in all tasks but neither age group showed variations in monitoring behaviour during the course of the PM task. In fact, neither age group monitored. According to our data, initial processes necessary for PM success take place during the first fixation on the PM cue. In PM hit trials we found prolonged fixations after the first fixation on the PM cue, and older children showed a greater efficiency in PM processes following this first PM cue fixation. Regarding executive functions, only working memory had a significant effect on children's PM performance. Across both age groups children with better working memory scores needed less time to react to the PM cue. Our data support the notion that children rely on spontaneous processes to notice the PM cue, followed by a resource intensive search for the intended action. • Eye tracking reveals prospective memory (PM) processes in 6–7 and 9–10 year olds. • Children do not show monitoring behaviour during a scene viewing task. • Children search for the intention after spontaneously noticing the PM cue. • Older children's processes starting with fixating the PM cue are faster. • Working memory influences processes starting with the first fixation on the PM cue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence has shown that older adults have lower accuracy in Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks compared with young adults, but we are still unclear whether the difficulty in decoding mental states in older adults stems from not looking at the critical areas, and more so from the ageing Asian population. Most ToM studies use static images or short vignettes to measure ToM but these stimuli are dissimilar to everyday social interactions. We investigated this question using a dynamic task that measured both accuracy and error types, and examined the links between accuracy and error types to eye gaze fixation at critical areas (e.g., eyes, mouth, body). A total of 82 participants (38 older, 44 young adults) completed the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition (MASC) task on the eye tracker. Results showed that older adults had a lower overall accuracy with more errors in the ipo-ToM (under-mentalising) and no-ToM (lack of mentalisation) conditions compared with young adults. We analysed the eye gaze data using principal components analysis and found that increasing age and looking less at the face were related to lower MASC accuracy in our participants. Our findings suggest that ageing deficits in ToM are linked to a visual attention deficit specific to the perception of socially relevant nonverbal cues., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Utilizing 23 datasets, we report a meta-analysis of an asymmetry in presaccadic fixation durations for saccades directed above and below eye fixation during saccadic exploration. For inclusion in the meta-analysis, saccadic exploration of complex visual displays had to have been made without gaze-contingent manipulations. Effect sizes for the asymmetry were quantified as Hedge’s g. Pooled effect sizes indicated significant asymmetries such that during saccadic exploration in a variety of tasks, presaccadic fixation durations for saccades directed into the upper visual field were reliably shorter than presaccadic fixation durations for saccades into the lower visual field. It is contended that the asymmetry is robust and important for efforts aimed at modelling when a saccade is initiated as a function of ensuing saccade direction.

Drivers collect information of road and traffic conditions through a visual search while driving to avoid any potential hazards they perceive. Novice drivers with lack of driving experience may be involved in a car accident as they misjudge the information obtained by insufficient visual search with a narrower field of vision than experienced drivers do. In this regard, the current study compared and identified the gap between novice and experienced drivers in regard to the information they obtained in a visual search of gaze movement and visual attention. A combination of a static analysis, based on the dwell time, fixation duration, the number of fixations and stationary gaze entropy in visual search, and a dynamic analysis using gaze transition entropy was applied. The static analysis on gaze indicated that the group of novice drivers showed a longer dwell time on the traffic lights, pedestrians, and passing vehicles, and a longer fixation duration on the navigation system and the dashboard than the experienced ones. Also, the novice had their eyes fixed on the area of interests straight ahead more frequently while driving at an intersection. In addition, the novice group demonstrated less information at 2.60 bits out of the maximum stationary gaze entropy of 3.32 bits that a driver can exhibit, which indicated that their gaze fixations were concentrated. Meanwhile, the experienced group displayed approx. 3.09 bits, showing that their gaze was not narrowed on a certain area of interests, but was relatively evenly distributed. The dynamic analysis results showed that the novice group conducted the most gaze transitions between traffic lights, pedestrians and passing vehicles, whereas experienced drivers displayed the most transitions between the right- and left-side mirrors, passing vehicles, pedestrians, and traffic lights to find more out about the surrounding traffic conditions. In addition, the experienced group (3.04 bits) showed a higher gaze transition entropy than the novice group (2.21 bits). This indicated that a larger entropy was required to understand the visual search data because visual search strategies changed depending on the situations.

Abstract Monovision can be used as a method to correct presbyopia with contact lenses (CL) but its effect on reading behavior is still poorly understood. In this study eye movements (EM) were recorded in fifteen presbyopic participants, naïve to monovision, whilst they read arrays of words, non-words, and text passages to assess whether monovision affected their reading. Three conditions were compared, using daily disposable CLs: baseline (near correction in both eyes), conventional monovision (distance correction in the dominant eye, near correction in the non-dominant eye), and crossed monovision (the reversal of conventional monovision). Behavioral measures (reading speed and accuracy) and EM parameters (single fixation duration, number of fixations, dwell time per item, percentage of regressions, and percentage of skipped items) were analyzed. When reading passages, no differences in behavioral and EM measures were seen in any comparison of the three conditions. The number of fixations and dwell time significantly increased for both monovision and crossed monovision with respect to baseline only with word and non-word arrays. It appears that monovision did not appreciably alter visual processing when reading meaningful texts but some limited stress of the EM pattern was observed only with arrays of unrelated or meaningless items under monovision, which require the reader to have more in-depth controlled visual processing.