Analyzing Web pages visual scanpaths: between and within tasks variability.
In this paper, we propose a new method for comparing scanpaths in a bottom-up approach, and a test of the scanpath theory. To do so, we conducted a laboratory experiment in which 113 participants were invited to accomplish a set of tasks on two different websites. For each site, they had to perform two tasks that had to be repeated ounce. The data were analyzed using a procedure similar to the one used by Duchowski et al. [8]. The first step was to automatically identify, then label, AOIs with the mean-shift clustering procedure [19]. Then, scanpaths were compared two by two with a modified version of the string-edit method, which take into account the order of AOIs visualizations [2]. Our results show that scanpaths variability between tasks but within participants seems to be lower than the variability within task for a given participant. In other words participants seem to be more coherent when they perform different tasks, than when they repeat the same tasks. In addition, participants view more of the same AOI when they perform a different task on the same Web page than when they repeated the same task. These results are quite different from what predicts the scanpath theory.
Département de Psychologie, Université Paul Verlaine - Metz, UFR SHA, BP 30309, Île du Saulcy, 57006 Metz, France.
Gautier
G
Drusch
J M Christian
JM
Bastien
D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D055815:Young Adult