Employing Portable Eye Tracking Technology in Visual Attention of Cognitive Process: A Case Study of Digital Game-Based Learning

Abstract

AbstractIn recent years, digital game-based learning (DGBL) has received more and more attention as a form of digital learning. This study used a portable eye tracker to explore the learners’ visual attention and cognitive process during DGBL. The study recruited 38 students in the third year of study in the school of information and design at a university in southern Taiwan. According to students’ performance in the English courses at the university, participants were divided into High Competence Group (n = 5), Intermediate Competence Group (n = 8), and Low Competence Group (n = 25). By collecting the participants’ eye movement data with eye tracker, eye movement indicators were acquired to investigate the correlation between the participants’ external behavior and cognitive process among regions of interest (ROIs). The finding results of this study were as follows: (1) The fixation sequence of ROIs from participants of different groups is different; (2) During the experiment, ROI3 (English definitions of the vocabulary) was the first ROI of fixation for participants of Intermediate and Low Competence Groups, showing a difference from participants of the High Competence Group in terms of visual attention during the first fixation; (3) By examining the total fixation duration and total fixation count of the ROIs from all participants, the same pattern can be found, indicating that as participants answered the questions in this DGBL context, their visual attention was distributed more towards the English definitions of the vocabulary, in order to successfully answer the vocabulary-related questions.KeywordsEye trackingGame-based learningVisual attentionCognitive process