Visualization Psychology for Eye Tracking Evaluation

TL;DR

This paper discusses how integrating psychology and cognitive science theories with eye tracking can deepen understanding of visualization perception and improve evaluation methods, illustrated through two case studies.

Contribution

It introduces the application of cognitive models and psychological theories to enhance visualization evaluation using eye tracking data.

Findings

Eye tracking reveals detailed perceptual and cognitive insights.

Cognitive models can improve visualization assessment.

Methodological integration benefits visualization research.

Abstract

Technical progress in hardware and software enables us to record gaze data in everyday situations and over long time spans. Among a multitude of research opportunities, this technology enables visualization researchers to catch a glimpse behind performance measures and into the perceptual and cognitive processes of people using visualization techniques. The majority of eye tracking studies performed for visualization research is limited to the analysis of gaze distributions and aggregated statistics, thus only covering a small portion of insights that can be derived from gaze data. We argue that incorporating theories and methodology from psychology and cognitive science will benefit the design and evaluation of eye tracking experiments for visualization. This book chapter provides an overview of how eye tracking can be used in a variety of study designs. Further, we discuss the potential merits of cognitive models for the evaluation of visualizations. We exemplify these concepts on two scenarios, each focusing on a different eye tracking study. Lastly, we identify several call for actions.