Research in reading comprehension traditionally relied on the experimental setting of word-by-word presentation which eventually revealed many neural biomarkers as well as establishing the basis of modern reading research. Since the development of brain-computer techniques and computational methods in the past decades, it has become possible to study reading comprehension in natural settings. This study used a variety of advanced technologies to analyze a dataset collected by the ZuCo group regarding reading comprehension. With natural language processing tools, we extracted the words essential for understanding sentences, and identified eye-tracking patterns that relate to these words. Using the EEG time series and frequency series, we also looked at neural patterns associated with those words and tried to build up a statistical model and neural network model that predicted the linguistic patterns. Consequently, the study is likely to provide new insights into future cognitive linguistics and brain-computer interaction research, which may help advance reading-aid technologies.
Addresses issues relating to the use of advanced research techniques - specifically Eyetracking and ERP - to study the moment-by-moment mental processes that occur while a reader or listener is understanding language.
Online eLearning environments to support student learning are of growing importance. Students are increasingly turning to online resources for education; sometimes in place of face-to-face tuition. Online eLearning extends teaching and learning from the classroom to a wider audience with different needs, backgrounds, and motivations. The one-size-fits-all approach predominately used is not effective for catering to the needs of all students. An area of the increasing diversity is the linguistic background of readers. More students are reading in their non-native language. It has previously been established that first English language (L1) students read differently to second English language (L2) students. One way of analysing this difference is by tracking the eyes of readers, which is an effective way of investigating the reading process. In this thesis we investigate the question of whether eye tracking can be used to make learning via reading more effective in eLearning environments. This question is approached from two directions; first by investigating how eye tracking can be used to adapt to individual student's understanding and perceptions of text. The second approach is analysing a cohort's reading behaviour to provide information to the author of the text and any related comprehension questions regarding their suitability and difficulty. To investigate these questions, two user studies were carried out to collect eye gaze data from both L1 and L2 readers. The first user study focussed on how different presentation methods of text and related questions affected not only comprehension performance but also reading behaviour and student perceptions of performance. The data from this study was used to make predictions of reading comprehension that can be used to make eLearning environments adaptive, in addition to providing implicit feedback about the difficulty of text and questions. In the second study we investigate the effects of text readability and conceptual difficulty on eye gaze, prediction of reading comprehension, and perceptions. This study showed that readability affected the eye gaze of L1 readers and conceptual difficulty affected the eye gaze of L2 readers. The prediction accuracy of comprehension was consequently increased for the L1 group by increased difficulty in readability, whereas increased difficulty in conceptual level corresponded to increased accuracy for the L2 group. Analysis of participants' perceptions of complexity revealed that readability and conceptual difficulty interact making the two variables hard for the reader to disentangle. Further analysis of participants' eye gaze revealed that both the predefined and perceived text complexity affected eye gaze. We therefore propose using eye gaze measures to provide feedback about the implicit reading difficulty of texts read. The results from both studies indicate that there is enormous potential in using eye tracking to make learning via reading more effective in eLearning environments. We conclude with a discussion of how these findings can be applied to improve reading within eLearning environments. We propose an adaptive eLearning architecture that dynamically presents text to students and provides information to authors to improve the quality of texts and questions.
We make 3-5 eye movements per second, and these movements are crucial in helping us deal with the vast amounts of information we encounter in our everyday lives. In recent years, thanks to the development of eye tracking technology, there has been a growing interest in monitoring and measuring these movements, with a view to understanding how we attend to and process the visual information we encounter Eye tracking as a research tool is now more accessible than ever, and is growing in popularity amongst researchers from a whole host of different disciplines. Usability analysts, sports scientists, cognitive psychologists, reading researchers, psycholinguists, neurophysiologists, electrical engineers, and others, all have a vested interest in eye tracking for different reasons. The ability to record eye-movements has helped advance our science and led to technological innovations. However, the growth of eye tracking in recent years has also presented a variety of challenges - in particular the issue of how to design an eye-tracking experiment, and how to analyse the data. This book is a much needed comprehensive handbook of eye tracking methodology. It describes how to evaluate and acquire an eye-tracker, how to plan and design an eye tracking study, and how to record and analyse eye-movement data. Besides technical details and theory, the heart of this book revolves around practicality - how raw data samples are converted into fixations and saccades using event detection algorithms, how the different representations of eye movement data are calculated using AOIs, heat maps and scanpaths, and how all the measures of eye movements relate to these processes. Part I presents the technology and skills needed to perform high-quality research with eye-trackers. Part II covers the predominant methods applied to the data which eye-trackers record. These include the parsing of raw sample data into oculomotor events, and how to calculate other representations of eye movements such as heat maps and transition matrices. Part III gives a comprehensive outline of the measures which can be calculated using the events and representations described in Part II. This is a taxonomy of the measures available to eye-tracking researchers, sorted by type of movement of the eyes and type of analysis. For anyone in the sciences considering conducting research involving eye-tracking, this book will be an essential reference work.
The book presents high-quality papers from the Third International Conference on Microelectronics, Computing & Communication Systems (MCCS 2018). It discusses the latest technological trends and advances in MEMS and nanoelectronics, wireless communications, optical communication, instrumentation, signal processing, image processing, bioengineering, green energy, hybrid vehicles, environmental science, weather forecasting, cloud computing, renewable energy, RFID, CMOS sensors, actuators, transducers, telemetry systems, embedded systems, and sensor network applications. It includes papers based on original theoretical, practical and experimental simulations, development, applications, measurements, and testing. The applications and solutions discussed in the book provide excellent reference material for future product development.
A modern approach to improving education uses the components of experimental scientific research practices based on objective data, dissemination of results, and the use of modern technologies. STEM education research is maturing and new tools and analysis techniques become available. As one example, eye tracking, the recording of persons’ eye movements, has been growing in popularity as it enables researchers to study learning materials’ effectiveness, problem solving, and even students’ approaches during experimentation. Eye movements, as captured using eye tracking, can reveal information about a student's attention and cognition on a process level, going well beyond classical product-based assessment techniques such as questionnaires or tests.
Our eye movements in response to visual stimuli reveal much about how we experience the world. Focusing on the latest developments in the multidisciplinary field of eye tracking research, this volume ranges across a wide spectrum of research applications, with four sections covering the plethora of practical uses to which our expanding knowledge can be put. They offer abundant evidence that eye tracking research and its methodologies offer new ways of collecting data, framing research questions, and thinking about how we view our world. As a result, we are discovering more about how the visual system works, as well as how it interacts with attention, cognition, and behaviour. Current Trends in Eye Tracking Research presents the work of more than 50 researchers and academics, showcasing groundbreaking studies and innovative ways of applying eye tracking technologies to interesting research problems. The book covers the current output of a number of pioneering research laboratories, detailing their work on eye tracking and the visual system, alignment and EEG data, marketing and social applications, and eye tracking in education. Featuring creative uses of existing technology as well as inventive implementation of new technology in a range of research contexts and disciplines, this new publication is compelling proof of the growing importance of this exciting and fast-moving area of scientific endeavor.
This book addresses important findings, assumptions, problems, hopes, and future guidelines on the use of advanced research techniques to study the moment-by-moment mental processes that occur while a reader or listener is understanding language. The core techniques are eye tracking and ERPs, with some extensions to others such as fMRI. The On-line Study of Sentence Comprehension has been written by top researchers in the field of psycholinguistics, who are also leading experts in the use of eye tracking and ERPs. This book combines comprehensive overviews of the state of th.
"This book enriches the current pool of educational research with cutting-edge applications of eye tracking in education and seeking to advance this emergent, interdisciplinary field"--
