Cargando…

Parsing eye-tracking data of variable quality to provide accurate fixation duration estimates in infants and adults

Researchers studying infants’ spontaneous allocation of attention have traditionally relied on hand-coding infants’ direction of gaze from videos; these techniques have low temporal and spatial resolution and are labor intensive. Eye-tracking technology potentially allows for much more precise measu...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wass, S. V., Smith, T. J., Johnson, M. H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer-Verlag 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3578727/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22956360
http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13428-012-0245-6
_version_ 1782260026539245568
author Wass, S. V.
Smith, T. J.
Johnson, M. H.
author_facet Wass, S. V.
Smith, T. J.
Johnson, M. H.
author_sort Wass, S. V.
collection PubMed
description Researchers studying infants’ spontaneous allocation of attention have traditionally relied on hand-coding infants’ direction of gaze from videos; these techniques have low temporal and spatial resolution and are labor intensive. Eye-tracking technology potentially allows for much more precise measurement of how attention is allocated at the subsecond scale, but a number of technical and methodological issues have given rise to caution about the quality and reliability of high temporal resolution data obtained from infants. We present analyses suggesting that when standard dispersal-based fixation detection algorithms are used to parse eye-tracking data obtained from infants, the results appear to be heavily influenced by interindividual variations in data quality. We discuss the causes of these artifacts, including fragmentary fixations arising from flickery or unreliable contact with the eyetracker and variable degrees of imprecision in reported position of gaze. We also present new algorithms designed to cope with these problems by including a number of new post hoc verification checks to identify and eliminate fixations that may be artifactual. We assess the results of our algorithms by testing their reliability using a variety of methods and on several data sets. We contend that, with appropriate data analysis methods, fixation duration can be a reliable and stable measure in infants. We conclude by discussing ways in which studying fixation durations during unconstrained orienting may offer insights into the relationship between attention and learning in naturalistic settings.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-3578727
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2012
publisher Springer-Verlag
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-35787272013-02-26 Parsing eye-tracking data of variable quality to provide accurate fixation duration estimates in infants and adults Wass, S. V. Smith, T. J. Johnson, M. H. Behav Res Methods Article Researchers studying infants’ spontaneous allocation of attention have traditionally relied on hand-coding infants’ direction of gaze from videos; these techniques have low temporal and spatial resolution and are labor intensive. Eye-tracking technology potentially allows for much more precise measurement of how attention is allocated at the subsecond scale, but a number of technical and methodological issues have given rise to caution about the quality and reliability of high temporal resolution data obtained from infants. We present analyses suggesting that when standard dispersal-based fixation detection algorithms are used to parse eye-tracking data obtained from infants, the results appear to be heavily influenced by interindividual variations in data quality. We discuss the causes of these artifacts, including fragmentary fixations arising from flickery or unreliable contact with the eyetracker and variable degrees of imprecision in reported position of gaze. We also present new algorithms designed to cope with these problems by including a number of new post hoc verification checks to identify and eliminate fixations that may be artifactual. We assess the results of our algorithms by testing their reliability using a variety of methods and on several data sets. We contend that, with appropriate data analysis methods, fixation duration can be a reliable and stable measure in infants. We conclude by discussing ways in which studying fixation durations during unconstrained orienting may offer insights into the relationship between attention and learning in naturalistic settings. Springer-Verlag 2012-09-06 2013 /pmc/articles/PMC3578727/ /pubmed/22956360 http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13428-012-0245-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2012 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits any use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and the source are credited.
spellingShingle Article
Wass, S. V.
Smith, T. J.
Johnson, M. H.
Parsing eye-tracking data of variable quality to provide accurate fixation duration estimates in infants and adults
title Parsing eye-tracking data of variable quality to provide accurate fixation duration estimates in infants and adults
title_full Parsing eye-tracking data of variable quality to provide accurate fixation duration estimates in infants and adults
title_fullStr Parsing eye-tracking data of variable quality to provide accurate fixation duration estimates in infants and adults
title_full_unstemmed Parsing eye-tracking data of variable quality to provide accurate fixation duration estimates in infants and adults
title_short Parsing eye-tracking data of variable quality to provide accurate fixation duration estimates in infants and adults
title_sort parsing eye-tracking data of variable quality to provide accurate fixation duration estimates in infants and adults
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3578727/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22956360
http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13428-012-0245-6
work_keys_str_mv AT wasssv parsingeyetrackingdataofvariablequalitytoprovideaccuratefixationdurationestimatesininfantsandadults
AT smithtj parsingeyetrackingdataofvariablequalitytoprovideaccuratefixationdurationestimatesininfantsandadults
AT johnsonmh parsingeyetrackingdataofvariablequalitytoprovideaccuratefixationdurationestimatesininfantsandadults