Relationship between letter shape and character impression using eye movement measurement

Abstract

Background Most of the studies that have investigated the relationship between letter shape and the letter impressions have used such evaluation methods as impression evaluations. It is possible to inspect impression changes quantitatively by shape the letter using an impression evaluation, but it is difficult to conduct a detailed examination where the letter elements affects the impression. Therefore, elements that affect the impression of Ming and Gothic styles are still unclear. Consequently, in this study we measure eye movements using an eye-tracking device on participants asked to evaluate letter impressions, and examine those elements that affect letter impressions. In particular, for hiragana letters of the Ming and Gothic styles, we measure eye movement fixation in term of duration and frequency when the participants evaluate those impression that can easily be affected by letter shape such as thickness, weight, adultness. Methods We tested our method with 29 Japanese participants who varied in age from 20 to 30 years. We selected two characters, つ and ほ, as letter simulations that show extreme differences in letter shape features such as the number of strokes and point of intersection in the 71 Japanese hiragana letters. We perform an impression evaluation of four types of letters using the Ming and Gothic styles for the aforementioned two characters. For this, we measure eye movement using an eye-tracking device. We attempt to inspect the results using an interview investigation. Results For the Ming and Gothic-styles of つ, the eye movement fixation duration is sufficiently long for the pressing down of the drafting department; we also measure, the frequency of eye movement fixations. For the Ming and Gothic styles of ほ, an extended eye movement fixation duration is measured for the part that contains much information, such as the central part and curved section of the letter, and many eye movement fixations also occur. In addition, as a result of investigating the point on which participants focus when evaluating letter impressions, we find that this is similar to the results of the eye movement measurement experiment. Conclusions We measure eye movement using an eye-tracking device to examine in greater detail the type of letter shape element that affects letter impressions when the participants evaluate such impressions in this study. From the results of this study, it is clear that eye movement measurement is an effective technique for investigating relationships that are more detailed than letter shape and letter impression. We believe that we can apply this technique when examining the relationship between letter shape and the impression of various letters, such as Korean, English, and the Japanese hiragana letters used in this study.