Differences in visual attention between those who correctly and incorrectly answer physics problems

Abstract

This study investigated how visual attention differed between those who correctly versus incorrectly answered introductory physics problems. We recorded eye movements of 24 individuals on six different conceptual physics problems where the necessary information to solve the problem was contained in a diagram. The problems also contained areas consistent with a novicelike response and areas of high perceptual salience. Participants ranged from those who had only taken one high school physics course to those who had completed a Physics Ph.D. We found that participants who answered correctly spent a higher percentage of time looking at the relevant areas of the diagram, and those who answered incorrectly spent a higher percentage of time looking in areas of the diagram consistent with a novicelike answer. Thus, when solving physics problems, top-down processing plays a key role in guiding visual selective attention either to thematically relevant areas or novicelike areas depending on the accuracy of a student's physics knowledge. This result has implications for the use of visual cues to redirect individuals' attention to relevant portions of the diagrams and may potentially influence the way they reason about these problems.

Can short duration visual cues influence students’ reasoning and eye movements in physics problems?

“…These were determined through interviews with novice physics students and confirmed with previous studies from physics education research literature that used the same problems. A more complete description of the features of these problems, details of these interviews, and previous studies of these problems are reported in Madsen et al [15]. Additionally, we found significant differences in the time spent fixating in these diagram areas based on the correctness of participants' answers.…”

“…Additionally, we found significant differences in the time spent fixating in these diagram areas based on the correctness of participants' answers. Those who answered incorrectly spent more time fixating in the novicelike areas while those who answered correctly spent more time fixating in the expertlike areas [15]. Three of the six problems discussed in our previous study were on kinematics graphs.…”

“…The cues used in this study were designed to combine integration and selection cues [11] and were also designed to mimic the eye movements of those who answered the same problems correctly in our previous study [15]. There was a large variation in eye movements from one individual to another while viewing the diagrams in these physics problems, so the visual cues did not mimic the eye movements of correct solvers exactly.…”

“…Importantly, our characterization of the cues as prompting selection and integration is from the target ''expert'' perspective (since the student perspective often corresponds to the ''novice'' perspective). On the ''roller coaster'' problem, the expertlike area of the diagram (as determined in our previous [15]) and used in the current study. Shown from top to bottom are the roller coaster, ball, Skier, and graph problems.…”

“…Shown from top to bottom are the roller coaster, ball, Skier, and graph problems. study [15]) was the relative heights of the roller coaster carts. The relationship between heights of the roller coaster carts is needed to determine the potential energy of each at the beginning and end of the path and then relate this to the amount of kinetic energy and finally the speed [16].…”