Eyes Don't Lie! Visual Preferences: Eye-Tracking Study on Unplanned Food Selections in Fine Dining Restaurants

Understanding how tacit knowledge embedded in visual materials is accessed and utilized during evaluation tasks remains a key challenge in human-computer interaction and visual expertise research. Although eye-tracking studies have identified systematic differences between experts and novices, findings remain inconsistent, particularly in art-related visual evaluation contexts. This study examines whether tacit aspects of visual evaluation can be inferred from gaze behavior by comparing individuals with and without formal art education. Visual evaluation was assessed using a structured, prompt-based task in which participants inspected artistic images and responded to items targeting specific visual elements. Eye movements were recorded using a screen-based eye-tracking system. Areas of Interest (AOIs) corresponding to correct-answer regions were defined a priori based on expert judgment and item prompts. Both AOI-level metrics (e.g., fixation count, mean, and total visit and gaze durations) and image-level metrics (e.g., fixation count, saccade count, and pupil size) were analyzed using appropriate parametric and non-parametric statistical tests. The results showed that participants with an art-education background produced more fixations within AOIs, exhibited longer mean and total AOI visit and gaze durations, and demonstrated lower saccade counts than participants without art education. These patterns indicate more systematic and goal-directed gaze behavior during visual evaluation, suggesting that formal art education may shape tacit visual evaluation strategies. The findings also highlight the potential of eye tracking as a methodological tool for studying expertise-related differences in visual evaluation processes.

In the post-epidemic era, an increasing number of individuals were accustomed to learning sports and physical activity knowledge online for fitness and health demands. However, most previous studies have examined the influence of e-learning materials and resources on learners and have neglected intrinsic factors such as experience and physiological characteristics. Therefore, we conducted a study to investigate the effect of exercise habits and gender on sports e-learning behavior via eye-tracking technology. We recruited a sample of 60 undergraduate students (mean age = 19.6) from a university in Nanjing, China. They were randomly assigned into 4 groups based on 2 genders × 2 exercise habits. Their gaze behavior was collected by an eye-tracking device during the experiment. The cognitive Load Test and Learning Effect Test were conducted at the end of the individual experiment. (1) Compared to the non-exercise habit group, the exercise habit group had a higher fixation count (P<0.05), a shorter average fixation duration (P<0.05), a smaller average pupil diameter (P<0.05), and a lower subjective cognitive load (P<0.05) and better learning outcome (P<0.05). (2) Male participants showed a greater tendency to process information from the video area of interest (AOIs), and had lower subjective cognitive load (P < 0.05) and better learning outcomes (P < 0.05). (3) There was no interaction effect between exercise habits and gender for any of the indicators (P > 0.05). Our results indicate that exercise habits effectively enhance sports e-learning outcomes and reduce cognitive load. The exercise habits group showed significant improvements in fixation counts, average fixation duration, and average pupil diameter. Furthermore, male subjects exhibited superior learning outcomes, experienced lower cognitive load, and demonstrated greater attentiveness to dynamic visual information. These conclusions are expected to improve sports e-learning success and address educational inequality.

Influence of mood on gazing behavior: Preliminary evidences from an eye-tracking study

Previous research has highlighted age-related differences in social perception, in particular emotional expression processing. To date, such studies have largely focused on approaches that use static emotional stimuli that the participant has to identify passively without the possibility of any interaction. In this study, we propose an interactive virtual environment to better address age-related variations in social and emotional perception. A group of 22 young (18-30 years) and 20 older (60-80 years) adults were engaged in a face-to-face conversation with an embodied conversational agent. Participants were invited to interact naturally with the agent and to identify his facial expression. Their gaze behaviour was captured by an eye-tracking device throughout the interaction. We also explored whether the Big Five personality traits (particularly extraversion) and anxiety modulated gaze during the social interaction. Findings suggested that age-related differences in gaze behaviour were only apparent when decoding social signals (i.e., listening to a partner's question, identifying facial expressions) and not when communicating social information (i.e., when speaking). Furthermore, higher extraversion levels consistently led to a shorter amount of time gazing towards the eyes, whereas higher anxiety levels led to slight modulations of gaze only when participants were listening to questions. Face-to-face conversation with virtual agents can provide a more naturalistic framework for the assessment of online socio-emotional interaction in older adults, which is not easily observable in classical offline paradigms. This study provides novel and important insights into the specific circumstances in which older adults may experience difficulties in social interactions.

BackgroundIndividual differences in learning preferences and cognitive strategies play a crucial role in shaping academic outcomes, emphasizing the need to customize educational approaches to meet diverse learner needs. This study explores the relationship between gaze behavior, learning style and academic performance in 20 sophomore Turkish medical students.MethodsEye-tracking metrics, gaze duration, fixation count, fixation duration, and saccadic movements, were recorded using Tobii Pro Glasses 2 eye tracker during Trail Making, Visual Sustained Attention and the Stroop Tests and associated with the Felder-Soloman learning style and academic performance.ResultsEye-tracking data revealed consistent patterns across tasks, with fixation percentages averaging 94% and saccadic movements accounting for 6%, suggesting uniform attention allocation. Pupil diameter variation did not significantly differ between tasks, implying similar cognitive demands across all tasks. Most of the participants demonstrated moderate-to-strong visual learning preferences, particularly females. Significant gender differences were observed in learning preferences and academic performance, with higher Grade Point Averages among female participants with stronger visual learning preferences.ConclusionsThe study underscores gender-based differences in learning preferences and the alignment of these preferences with academic performance. The findings suggest the importance of tailoring educational strategies to support diverse learning needs, with a particular emphasis on visually engaging materials.

Aberrant visual attention is associated with social judgements of attractiveness and negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

This study examines the implications of menu calorie labelling in a fine dining restaurant, both on consumer food choices as well as on the restaurant operation team. Menu nutrition labelling has been mandatory in restaurants with more than 20 branches in countries such as United States since 2008, and has been seen practiced in independent restaurants in other countries such as UK and Canada, on voluntarily basis, in recent years. These menu nutrition labelling programs have been initiated in response to growing consumer demand for menu transparency as well as growing global health concerns such obesity and chronic diseases. The impact of menu labelling in fast food restaurants and full service restaurants has been studied extensively, however there is a lack of evidence on implication of menu labelling in fine dining restaurant settings. This study examines clients’ food choices in a fine dining restaurant during a 3-week period without calories labelling (control phase) followed by a 3-week period of menu calorie labelling. Study findings reflected a direct impact of menu calorie labelling on clients’ food choice, with significant reduction in sales of menus with higher calorie content during the labelling phase compared to control phase. An evaluation of the average calories consumer per client during each phase reflected a reduction of 227 calories consumed per client during the labelling phase. Survey results indicated that calorie information was most valued and used by women and older clients. This study also summarizes the opportunities and limitations involved in implementation of menu calorie in fine dining restaurants.

“You look at it, but will you choose it”: Is there a link between the foods consumers look at and what they ultimately choose in a virtual supermarket?

The increasing growth in the use of mobile news apps has raised questions on how their interface design features affect users’ gaze behaviours and behavioural performance. To tackle these issues, two experiments (visual browse and search tasks) were designed to investigate the impact of interface design features (colour and layout) on users’ gaze behaviours (fixation count, fixation time ratio and first fixation duration) and behavioural performance (task completion time and search accuracy) with a portable eye tracker. Twenty-four participants were recruited to browse and search for news in different mobile news interfaces with Chinese language. The results showed that mobile news apps with white interfaces attracted more attention and participants needed more time to comprehend the information of white interfaces in the visual browse task. Furthermore, participants achieved higher search efficiency in the visual search task by using interfaces with red keyword and LT-RP (Left Text-Right Picture). In addition, it is noticeable that participants paid more attention to the text than the pictures of mobile news interfaces, and most participants first looked at text and later observed pictures. The findings provide valuable and interesting insights for better understanding users’ gaze behaviours and behavioural performance of mobile news apps.

How Users' Gaze Behavior Is Related to Their Quality Evaluation of a Health Website Based on HONcode Principles?

While some people enjoy looking at their faces in the mirror, others experience emotional distress. Despite these individual differences concerning self-viewing in the mirror, systematic investigations on this topic have not been conducted so far. The present eye-tracking study examined whether personality traits (self-esteem, narcissism propensity, self-disgust) are associated with gaze behavior (gaze duration, fixation count) during free mirror viewing of one’s face. Sixty-eight adults (mean age = 23.5 years; 39 females, 29 males) viewed their faces in the mirror and watched a video of an unknown person matched for gender and age (control condition) for 90 s each. The computed regression analysis showed that higher self-esteem was associated with a shorter gaze duration for both self-face and other-face. This effect may reflect a less critical evaluation of the faces.

BackgroundGaze behavior can serve as an objective tool in undergraduate pre-clinical dental education, helping to identify key areas of interest and common pitfalls in the routine evaluation of tooth preparations. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the gaze behavior of undergraduate dental students and dental educators while evaluating a single crown tooth preparation.MethodsThirty-five participants volunteered to participate in the study and were divided into a novice group (dental students, n = 18) and an expert group (dental educators, n = 17). Each participant wore a binocular eye-tracking device, and the total duration of fixation was evaluated as a metric to study the gaze behavior. Sixty photographs of twenty different tooth preparations in three different views (buccal, lingual, and occlusal) were prepared and displayed during the experimental session. The participants were asked to rate the tooth preparations on a 100 mm visual analog rating scale and were also asked to determine whether each tooth preparation was ready to make an impression. Each view was divided into different areas of interest. Statistical analysis was performed with a three-way analysis of the variance model with repeated measures.ResultsBased on the participants’ mean rates, the “best” and the “worst” tooth preparations were selected for analysis. The results showed a significantly longer time to decision in the novices compared to the experts (P = 0.003) and a significantly longer time to decision for both the groups in the best tooth preparation compared to the worst tooth preparation (P = 0.002). Statistical analysis also showed a significantly longer total duration of fixations in the margin compared to all other conditions for both the buccal (P < 0.012) and lingual (P < 0.001) views.ConclusionsThe current study showed distinct differences in gaze behavior between the novices and the experts during the evaluation of single crown tooth preparation. Understanding differences in gaze behavior between undergraduate dental students and dental educators could help improve tooth preparation skills and provide constructive customized feedback.

Attaching an ad banner on a clip in a video-sharing website such as YouTube has become common although eye-tracking studies have concluded that this fails to secure visitors’ attention. To date, there have been no studies verifying whether ad banners on a video clip can ensure eye fixation from viewers. Through eye-tracking, this study investigates whether YouTube visitors fixate on ad banners, what the correlations between fixation duration on banners and overall fixation counts are, and the extent to which site visitors are able to recall details of ad banners and of the clip viewed. Using a Miramatrix eye-tracker to record YouTube viewers’ eye movements, this study showed that nearly all fixated at least once on an ad banner in a clip. However, less than 10% were able to correctly recall the ad content viewed. Nevertheless, about half of viewers were able to correctly recall clip details. duration on the banner and fixation counts on the clip are negatively correlated, but the relationship between fixation duration and counts on the banner was insignificant. This study sheds new light on YouTube advertising through the use of eye-tracking and advises advertisers to be attentive in selecting clips on which ad banners will appear. To cite this document: Chatpong Tangmanee, Fixation and recall of YouTube ad banners: An eye-tracking study, International Journal of Electronic Commerce Studies, Vol.7, No.1, pp.49-76, 2016. Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.7903/ijecs.1404 Â

Gazing behavior, choice and color of food: Does gazing behavior predict choice?

Consumers’ willingness to pay for information transparency at casual and fine dining restaurants