Rapid serial blinks: An index of temporally increased cognitive load

Abstract

In recent years, natural viewing settings with video presentation have been used in neurological and psychological experiments. However, the experienced cognitive load may differ among participants. In this study, we show that rapid serial blinks (RSB) can indicate temporally increased cognitive load with high temporal resolution. We proposed a method to create a personal criterion for respective participants by using empirical blink intervals. When we focused on more than four serial blinks (i.e., three inter-blink intervals), an increased number of RSB detect participants who felt hard to understanding, indicating a poor understanding of the subject matter. By contrast, a constant criterion across participants used in previous study could not detect participant’s understanding. These results suggest that individual differences in cognitive trait of each participant may skew the results of experiments. To avoid biases, we recommend researchers to perform an operational check on individually different temporally increased cognitive loads among experimental groups.

Automated Analysis Pipeline for Extracting Saccade, Pupil, and Blink Parameters Using Video-Based Eye Tracking

“…Similarly, every blink was also detected and categorized. Blinks were once a nuisance to overcome in measuring eye movement via video-based tracking, but they have recently become a behavioral marker in their own right [ 18 , 20 ]. Additionally, the trials that were once discarded can now be utilized for behavioral analysis.…”

“…Blinks can cause a full, or even partial, occlusion of the pupil, which results in data loss. At first deemed a nuisance, these moments of data loss have recently become useful for studying a vast variety of blink behaviors [ 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 ]. This data loss during eye tracking can occur for a number of different reasons, and is not caused only by blinks.…”

Automatic Assistance to Cognitive Disabled Web Users via Reinforcement Learning on the Browser

“…The time period between two or more consecutive eye blinks can be a good indicator of task difficulty as well. For example, a poor understanding of the subject matter in a lecture on mathematics resulted, for some persons, on an increased number of rapid serial blinks [ 10 ]. Blink frequency can be easily measured by, for example, analysing a video of the user’s face recorded with a typical laptop webcam.…”