We introduce coefficient K , defined on a novel parametric scale, derived from processing a traditionally eye-tracked time course of eye movements. Positive and negative ordinates of K indicate focal or ambient viewing, respectively, while the abscissa serves to indicate time, so that K acts as a dynamic indicator of fluctuation between ambient/focal visual behavior. The coefficient indicates the difference between fixation duration and its subsequent saccade amplitude expressed in standard deviation units, facilitating parametric statistical testing. To validate K empirically, we test its utility by capturing ambient and focal attention during serial and parallel visual search tasks (Study 1). We then show how K quantitatively depicts the difference in scanning behaviors when attention is guided by audio description during perception of art (Study 2).

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Eye tracking methodology is used to examine the influence of interactive multimedia on the allocation of visual attention and its dynamics during learning. We hypothesized that an interactive simulation promotes more organized switching of attention between different elements of multimedia learning material, e.g., textual description and pictorial visualization. Participants studied a description of an algorithm accompanied either by an interactive simulation, self-paced animation, or static illustration. Using a novel framework for entropy-based comparison of gaze transition matrices, results showed that the interactive simulation elicited more careful visual investigation of the learning material as well as reading of the problem description through to its completion.

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The current study aimed to develop a shortened language-specific (Polish) version of the UNRAVEL task (Altmann, Trafton, & Hambrick, 2014) and to verify whether the adaptation yields valid and reliable data about placekeeping ability. Since the original procedure is intended to investigate task performance referring to placekeeping operations under conditions of task interruptions, we used this tool in the context of a multitasking situation. The adopted version differs from the original in that we reduced the number of steps in the procedure and changed the rules set, using an acronym WINDA (a word meaning elevator in Polish). Participants were asked to try to keep their place in the WINDA sequence, make a two-alternative forced choice regarding one feature of a presented stimulus, and to continue the task after the interruption at the place where they had left off. Similarly to the original task, reliability of sequence errors was high, suggesting that the WINDA task is suitable for measuring individual differences in placekeeping performance. The results suggest that the adaptation process that we employed to create the WINDA task can be utilized to generate other language adaptations of this tool (characterized by different levels of difficulty) targeted at specific subject groups.