Pupil Diameter Does Not Correlate with Fixation Duration - or Does It?

Arnt Lykke Jakobsen, Michael Carl, Jakob Elming

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference abstract in proceedingsResearchpeer-review

    Abstract

    A number of pupillometric studies have suggested that dynamic differences in pupil diameter correlate with dierent levels of cognitive intensity or excitement. Other studies have suggested a similar correlation between fixation duration and cognitive effort. Since both methodologies for hypothesizing about cognitive effort are contested, we examined if the two measures co-vary in eye-tracked observations of translators while performing a translation or text-revision task.
    A plot representation of pupil diameter measurements inserted in a progression graph showing a participant's gaze path while translating/revising indicated that diameter size pulsates regularly throughout such tasks, with peaks occurring task initially, before final revision, and, occasionally, during the drafting phase, typically at intervals with no typing activity. From the point of view of validating the two microbehavioural methodologies, the most interesting result was establishing whether or not the pupil diameter of translators and revisers co-varies systematically with fixation duration, such that the occurrence of larger-than-average pupil diameters correlates with longer-than-average fixations, regardless of what linguistic material they
    are fixations of.
    We tested the assumption on six recordings of translation sessions in three different experiments, all of which are available in the CBS database of translation and postediting process recordings.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationBook of Abstracts : 17th European Conference on Eye Movemement, 11-16 August 2013, Lund, Sweden
    EditorsKenneth Holmqvist, Fiona Mulvey , Roger Johansson
    Place of PublicationLund
    PublisherLund University
    Publication date14 Aug 2013
    Pages418
    Publication statusPublished - 14 Aug 2013
    Event17th European Conference on Eye Movements. 2013 - Lund University, Lund, Sweden
    Duration: 11 Aug 201316 Aug 2013
    Conference number: 17
    http://ecem2013.eye-movements.org/

    Conference

    Conference17th European Conference on Eye Movements. 2013
    Number17
    LocationLund University
    Country/TerritorySweden
    CityLund
    Period11/08/201316/08/2013
    Internet address
    SeriesJournal of Eye Movement Research
    Number3
    Volume6
    ISSN1995-8692

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