Relating Eye-Tracking Measures With Changes In Knowledge on Search Tasks

TL;DR

This study investigates how eye-tracking measures during web search tasks relate to changes in users' topical knowledge, revealing significant differences in reading behavior linked to knowledge gains.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis linking eye-tracking reading patterns to knowledge change during search tasks, providing insights into cognitive processes involved.

Findings

Participants with higher knowledge change had longer reading sequences.

Higher knowledge change correlated with longer reading-sequence durations.

Participants with greater knowledge gains showed more reading fixations.

Abstract

We conducted an eye-tracking study where 30 participants performed searches on the web. We measured their topical knowledge before and after each task. Their eye-fixations were labelled as "reading" or "scanning". The series of reading fixations in a line, called "reading-sequences" were characterized by their length in pixels, fixation duration, and the number of fixations making up the sequence. We hypothesize that differences in knowledge-change of participants are reflected in their eye-tracking measures related to reading. Our results show that the participants with higher change in knowledge differ significantly in terms of their total reading-sequence-length, reading-sequence-duration, and number of reading fixations, when compared to participants with lower knowledge-change.