Technical aspects in the recording of scanpath eye movements (poster session)

Abstract. Eye movements of children (Grade 5-6) and adults were monitored while they were watching a foreign language movie with either standard (foreign language soundtrack and native language subtitling) or reversed (foreign language subtitles and native language soundtrack) subtitling. With standard subtitling, reading behavior in the subtitle was observed, but there was a difference between one- and two-line subtitles. As two lines of text contain verbal information that cannot easily be inferred from the pictures on the screen, more regular reading occurred; a single text line is often redundant to the information in the picture, and accordingly less reading of one-line text was apparent. Reversed subtitling showed even more irregular reading patterns (e.g., more subtitles skipped, fewer fixations, longer latencies). No substantial age differences emerged, except that children took longer to shift attention to the subtitle at its onset, and showed longer fixations and shorter saccades in the text. On the whole, the results demonstrated the flexibility of the attentional system and its tuning to the several information sources available (image, soundtrack, and subtitles).

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Age Differences in Eye Movements During Reading: Degenerative Problems or Compensatory Strategy?

European Psychologist ◽

10.1027/1016-9040/a000344 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 24 (4) ◽

pp. 297-311

Author(s):

José David Moreno ◽

José A. León ◽

Lorena A. M. Arnal ◽

Juan Botella

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Eye Movement ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Age Groups ◽

Behavioral Changes ◽

Aging Effects ◽

Movement Data ◽

Sentence Reading ◽

The Difference ◽

Eye Movements During Reading

Abstract. We report the results of a meta-analysis of 22 experiments comparing the eye movement data obtained from young ( Mage = 21 years) and old ( Mage = 73 years) readers. The data included six eye movement measures (mean gaze duration, mean fixation duration, total sentence reading time, mean number of fixations, mean number of regressions, and mean length of progressive saccade eye movements). Estimates were obtained of the typified mean difference, d, between the age groups in all six measures. The results showed positive combined effect size estimates in favor of the young adult group (between 0.54 and 3.66 in all measures), although the difference for the mean number of fixations was not significant. Young adults make in a systematic way, shorter gazes, fewer regressions, and shorter saccadic movements during reading than older adults, and they also read faster. The meta-analysis results confirm statistically the most common patterns observed in previous research; therefore, eye movements seem to be a useful tool to measure behavioral changes due to the aging process. Moreover, these results do not allow us to discard either of the two main hypotheses assessed for explaining the observed aging effects, namely neural degenerative problems and the adoption of compensatory strategies.

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Cognitive Processing of Film Cuts Among 4- to 8-Year-Old Children

European Psychologist ◽

10.1027/1016-9040/a000098 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 17 (4) ◽

pp. 257-265 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Carmen Munk ◽

Günter Daniel Rey ◽

Anna Katharina Diergarten ◽

Gerhild Nieding ◽

Wolfgang Schneider ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Cognitive Processing ◽

Media Literacy ◽

Age Groups ◽

Reaction Times ◽

Time Span ◽

Short Film ◽

Calculation Formula ◽

Eye Tracker ◽

Chronological Sequence

An eye tracker experiment investigated 4-, 6-, and 8-year old children’s cognitive processing of film cuts. Nine short film sequences with or without editing errors were presented to 79 children. Eye movements up to 400 ms after the targeted film cuts were measured and analyzed using a new calculation formula based on Manhattan Metrics. No age effects were found for jump cuts (i.e., small movement discontinuities in a film). However, disturbances resulting from reversed-angle shots (i.e., a switch of the left-right position of actors in successive shots) led to increased reaction times between 6- and 8-year old children, whereas children of all age groups had difficulties coping with narrative discontinuity (i.e., the canonical chronological sequence of film actions is disrupted). Furthermore, 4-year old children showed a greater number of overall eye movements than 6- and 8-year old children. This indicates that some viewing skills are developed between 4 and 6 years of age. The results of the study provide evidence of a crucial time span of knowledge acquisition for television-based media literacy between 4 and 8 years.

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