Navigating Through the Experienced Environment: Insights From Mobile Eye Tracking. (June 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pérez-Edgar, Koraly; MacNeill, Leigha A.; Fu, Xiaoxue
• Is Part Of: Current directions in psychological science. Volume 29:Number 3(2020)
• Page Start: 286
• Page End: 292
• Publication Date: 2020-06
• Subjects: mobile eye tracking -- stationary eye tracking -- visual attention -- development -- learning; Psychology -- Periodicals; 150
• DOI: 10.1177/0963721420915880
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0963-7214

Abstract

Researchers are acutely interested in how people engage in social interactions and navigate their environment. However, in striving for experimental or laboratory control, we often instead present individuals with representations of social and environmental constructs and infer how they would behave in more dynamic and contingent interactions. Mobile eye tracking (MET) is one approach to connecting the laboratory to the experienced environment. MET superimposes gaze patterns captured through head- or eyeglass-mounted cameras pointed at the eyes onto a separate camera that captures the visual field. As a result, MET allows researchers to examine the world from the point of view of the individual in action. This review touches on the methods and questions that can be asked with this approach, illustrating how MET can provide new insight into social, behavioral, and cognitive processes from infancy through old age.