Using eye movement modelling examples to guide visual attention and foster cognitive performance: A meta‐analysis

Abstract

AbstractEye movement modelling examples (EMME) are computer‐based videos displaying the visualized eye gaze behaviour of a domain expert person (model) while carefully executing the learning or problem‐solving task. The role of EMME in promoting cognitive performance (i.e., final scores of learning outcome or problem solving) has been questioned due to the mixed findings from empirical studies. This study tested the effects of EMME on attention guidance and cognitive performance by means of meta‐analytic procedures. Data for both experimental and control groups and both posttest and pretest were extracted to calculate the effect sizes. The EMME group was treated as the experimental group and the non‐EMME group was treated as the control group. Twenty‐five independent articles were included. The overall analysis showed a significant effect of EMME on time to first fixation (d = −0.83), fixation duration (d = 0.74), as well as cognitive performance (d = 0.43), but not on fixation count, indicating that using EMME not only helped learners attend faster and longer to the task‐relevant elements, but also fostered their final cognitive performance. Interestingly, task type significantly moderated the effect of EMME on cognitive performance. Moderation analyses showed that EMME was beneficial to learners' performance when non‐procedural tasks (rather than procedural tasks) were used. These findings show contributions for future research as well as practical application in the field of computers and learning regarding videos displaying a model's visualized eye gaze behaviour.