An Overview of How Eye Tracking Is Used in Communication Research

Abstract

Eye tracking gives communication scholars the opportunity to move beyond self-reported measures by examining more precisely how much visual attention is paid to information. However, we lack insight into how eye-tracking data is used in communication research. This literature review provides an overview of how eye tracking is used in communication research by examining published articles from the top-25 ranked communication journals between 2005 and 2015. Our results showed that most eye-tracking research was employed in the field of advertising. Furthermore, most studies used eye tracking to measure (visual) attention and used this as the study’s dependent variable. A wide variety of eye-tracking measures were reported, including fixation time, fixation count, and visual shifts, and a wide variety of eye-tracking devices were used. Our results highlight opportunities for using eye tracking as well as identify other ways of using eye tracking to maximize its potential in communication research.