Exploring human perception with eye tracking

Webinar information

In this webinar, researchers share eye tracking insights from psychological & cognitive sciences. This event promises a rich exchange of ideas and findings about human behavior, from infancy to adulthood.

You'll get inspired by our Tobii users:

• Dr. Zsuzsa Kaldy discusses Visual Working Memory (VWM) development in young infants and presents findings using a Delayed Match Retrieval task.
• Dr. Francesco Walker explores children's interaction with art in museums and the effects of adult-oriented descriptions on their experiences.
• Dr. Jelena Ristic shares insights into nonverbal communication through eye gaze in social interactions.

The talks

What makes young children’s working memory function?

Speaker: Dr. Zsuzsa Kaldy, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston

Description: Visual Working Memory (VWM) for objects and their locations underlies the ability to represent, learn, and reason about the visual environment. Every time an infant gazes after a toy that has rolled away or a toddler sorts colorful buttons into little boxes, the knowledge of what is where is paramount. We developed a novel Delayed Match Retrieval task to test infants’ VWM for object/location bindings - what is where - based on anticipatory gaze responses. I will present results from a series of studies from 8-month-old infants to 8-year-old children, tracing the development of information maintenance, updating, and interference resolution in VWM using this engaging, scalable task.

Art through the eyes of children: Enhancing children’s museum experiences

Speaker: Dr. Francesco Walker, Asst. Professor, Cognitive Psychology Unit, Faculty of Social Sciences, Leiden University

Description: Children learn about art by actively engaging with their surroundings. This makes museums potentially rich environments for learning and development. Yet, the descriptions of paintings on show are usually written for adults rather than for their younger visitors. We know that children view art differently than adults, so how does the use of adult descriptions affect their experience, and how can we improve it? Francesco Walker shares novel findings derived from exciting collaborations with major Dutch museums.

Title: The prevalence of eye contact during natural interactions: A dual eye tracking approach

Speaker: Dr. Jelena Ristic, Professor, Department of Psychology, McGill University

Description: Human eyes convey an array of social messages, with mutual looks representing one of the hallmark social communicative behaviors. However, little remains known about the prevalence and characteristics of eye contact during natural interactions. We studied this question in live interacting dyads using Tobii dual mobile eye trackers and examined how often participants engaged in mutual gaze as a function of looking towards the top (i.e., the Eye region) and bottom half of the face (i.e., the Mouth region) and as a function of the interactive context (i.e., interacting with friends vs. interacting with strangers).