Eye fixations of the face are normally directed towards either the eyes or the mouth, however the proportions of gaze to either of these regions are dependent on context. Previous studies of gaze behavior demonstrate a tendency to stare into a target’s eyes, however no studies investigate the differences between when participants believe they are engaging in a live interaction compared to knowingly watching a pre-recorded video, a distinction that may contribute to studies of memory encoding. This study examined differences in fixation behavior for when participants falsely believed they were engaging in a real-time interaction over the internet (“Real-time stimulus”) compared to when they knew they were watching a pre-recorded video (“Pre-recorded stimulus”). Results indicated that participants fixated significantly longer towards the eyes for the pre-recorded stimulus than for the real-time stimulus, suggesting that previous studies which utilize pre-recorded videos may lack ecological validity. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

En 2007, une étude menée par Hamlin, Wynn et Bloom a montré qu’à 6 mois les jeunes enfants disposent de capacités d’évaluation sociale, qui s’illustrent dans leur préférence pour des personnages prosociaux. Depuis, de nombreuses études ont tenté de retrouver la préférence pour un personnage prosocial. Parmi elles, certaines n’ont pas retrouvé ce résultat, questionnant la solidité de ces capacités.L’objectif de cette thèse est de tester l’existence et la robustesse de la préférence pour un comportement prosocial chez les jeunes enfants en manipulant : 1) l’âge (6, 12, 18, 24, 36 mois), le type de scénario social (aide, jeu, partage), et l’apparence faciale des agents prosociaux et antisociaux (familière ou inhabituelle). Dans cet objectif, quatre études ont été réalisées auprès de 446 enfants âgés de 6 à 36 mois qui ont visionné des dessins animés faisant interagir des agents prosociaux et antisociaux. Leurs préférences ont été identifiées par un geste de pointage/atteinte ou à l’aide d’un oculomètre.Nos résultats montrent que la préférence pour un comportement prosocial est observée quasiment à tous les âges testés, et varie en fonction du scénario social. Enfin, dans les situations sensées être conflictuelles au regard des préférences des jeunes enfants, ces derniers n’expriment majoritairement pas de préférence. L’ensemble des résultats remettent en question la solidité d’une préférence précoce pour un comportement prosocial et questionnent les conditions nécessaires à son observation. Les résultats de cette thèse sont discutés à la lumière de questionnements méthodologiques et d’études récentes qui fragilisent les résultats princeps d’Hamlin et ses collaborateurs. / In 2007, a study carried out by Hamlin, Wynn, and Bloom showed that infants aged 6 months are able to make social evaluation, that could be identified through their preference for prosocial characters. Since, a number of studies have tried to confirm this preference for prosocial characters. Of these, some did not find similar result, raising question on the robustness of this ability.This dissertation aims to test the existence and the strength of the preference for prosocial behaviors in infants by manipulating: 1) age (6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months), the type of the social scenario (help, play, share), and the facial appearance of the prosocial and antisocial agents (familiar or unusual). To that end, four studies have been carried out with 446 infants aged 6 to 36 months who were shown specially designed animated cartoons in which prosocial and antisocial agents interacted. Infants’ preference was identified through their pointing/reaching gesture or assessed by an eye-tracker. Our results show that the preference for the prosocial behaviors was observed in nearly all the tested age, and varied according to the social scenario. Finally, in the situation assumed to be conflicting infants' preferences, infants mostly did not express any preference. All results challenge the strength of the preference for prosocial behaviors as well as the conditions that must be met to observe it. The results of this dissertation are discussed in the light of methodological issues and recent studies that weaken Hamlin and collaborators’ original results.

This study aims to examine how an audience reacts to and perceives news from Swedish public service versus Swedish alternative media. The study was conducted upon three news articles from public service and three articles from alternative media. To be able to examine this we used three types of methods: Eye-tracking, Galvanic Skin Response, and the qualitative interview. We used theories about news reception, encoding/decoding and “The media is the message”. Our main results showed that people, according to themselves, tend to react in a more negative way to articles from alternative media, even though the eye-tracking and GSR-analysis showed that there were no big differences in how people reacted to public service versus alternative media. It was also shown that people have a more critical attitude towards articles from alternative media than towards articles from public service.

A neotenia é um importante processo biológico-evolutivo que conserva traços fenotípicos do jovem no indivíduo adulto. A neotenia modifica a velocidade típica da ontogênese das características morfológicas compartilhadas pelos ancestrais. Essas mudanças podem representar oportunidades de mudanças fenotípicas dramáticas com poucas alterações genéticas, possibilitando alterações de estados especializados. O etólogo Konrad Lorenz reconheceu características neotênicas em humanos e algumas espécies de mamíferos na fórmula estrutural do corpo (principalmente da face) típica de infantes. Essa fórmula corpórea foi batizada por Lorenz de Kindchenschema. Os humanos típicos respondem quando observam traços infantis ativando uma resposta chamada de Efeito Kindchenschema (EK). Neste efeito verifica-se uma diminuição da agressividade, estimulação do cuidado parental e engajamento social. São raros os trabalhos de escaneamento do olhar em portadores de disfunções do neurodesenvolvimento, como a Síndrome de Williams (SW) e o Transtorno do Espectro Autista (TEA). O presente trabalho é o primeiro na literatura a investigar o escaneamento do olhar em portadores de SW e TEA usando estímulos faciais neotênicos de humanos e animais. Na presente investigação foram estudados 21 portadores de SW e 25 portadores de TEA, o grupo controle (GC) contou com 33 participantes. Encontramos uma correspondência entre os resultados declarados do estímulo preferido e o tempo de fixação. Os resultados mostraram que todos os participantes fixaram mais a região dos olhos de humanos e animais, sendo que o GC fixou mais tempo do que os portadores de SW e TEA. Foi possível separar usando o tempo de fixação nos olhos e HeatMaps os três grupos investigados. É viável a produção de um exame clínico auxiliar rápido e não-invasivo para indivíduos com suspeita de uma disfunção do neurodesenvolvimento. Talvez a região do nariz e boca sejam menos importantes e as orelhas mais importantes do que pensávamos nos estímulos neotênicos. Os estímulos mais neotênicos de infantes humanos e animais produziram um padrão semelhantes do tempo de fixação nos três grupos estudados. Esses resultados demonstram que portadores de SW e TEA respondem positivamente a estímulos faciais neotênicos. Sugerimos que as novas investigações na área incorporem também como variáveis faciais as orelhas, cor do cabelo e olhos, e simetria facial / Neoteny is an important biological-evolutionary process that retains phenotypic traits of the young in the adult individual of a species. Neoteny modifies the typical ontogeny velocity of the morphological characteristics shared with the ancestors. These changes may represent opportunities for dramatic phenotype modifications with few genetic changes, allowing for alterations in specialized states. The ethologist Konrad Lorenz has recognized neotenic characteristics in humans and some species of mammals in the structural formula of the body (mainly of the face) typical of infants. This body formula was named by Lorenz Kindchenschema. Typical humans respond when they observe infant traits by activating a response called the Kindchenschema Effect (KE). In this effect, there is a decrease in aggressiveness, stimulation of parental care and social engagement. There is a paucity of eye scanning in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders such as Williams Syndrome (WS) and Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The present work is the first in the literature to investigate the eye scanning in WS and ASD patients using neotenic facial stimuli of humans and animals. In the present investigation, 21 WS and 25 ASD participants were studied. The control group (CG) had 33 participants. We found a correspondence between the stated results of the preferred stimulus and the fixation time. The results showed that all the participants fixed more the region of the eyes of humans and animals, and the CG fixed more time than the WS and ASD participants. It was possible to distinguish, using the fixation time in the eyes and Heat Maps, the three groups. The production of a rapid and non-invasive auxiliary clinical examination is feasible for individuals suspected in presenting a neurodevelopmental dysfunction. Perhaps the nose and mouth areas are less important, and the ears are more important than previously considered with respect. The more neotenic stimuli of human and animal infants produced a similar pattern of fixation time in the three groups studied. This may represent a greater adaptive value than we thought of those with WS and ASD. We suggest that the new investigations can also incorporate facial variables as ears, hair color and eyes, and facial symmetry

A implantação da TV Digital Terrestre no Brasil permite que os usuários da TV aberta, principal fonte de informação e entretenimento do país, tenham acesso aos serviços oferecidos pela TV Interativa (TVi). Estes usuários, que constituem uma grande e heterogênea população composta por indivíduos de diversos graus de instrução, faixas etárias e índices de alfabetização digital, passam a adotar uma atitude muito mais ativa em relação a este meio de comunicação tradicionalmente coletivo e passivo, aumentando a possibilidade de escolha e a oferta de conteúdos personalizados. A TVi se torna possível na forma de aplicações interativas enviadas junto com o conteúdo audiovisual da TV. Neste cenário, o rastreamento do olhar, técnica usada para identificar as posições observadas pelo usuário, se apresenta como uma poderosa ferramenta de análise capaz de identificar comportamentos típicos dos usuários, enquanto produz evidências conclusivas, mensuráveis e repetíveis das atividades observadas durante a interação do usuário com a aplicação. Esta pesquisa explora a utilização da técnica de rastreamento do olhar na avaliação de usabilidade de aplicações de TVi e estuda como o rastreamento do olhar pode ser usado para obter dados sobre a interação com estas aplicações. Para tanto, a literatura sobre rastreamento do olhar é investigada, identificando as técnicas e métodos empregados para obter as posições observadas pelos usuários, assim como o uso destas técnicas em avaliações de usabilidade. Para estudar a utilização do rastreamento de olhar em avaliações de usabilidade no ambiente de uso das aplicações da TVi, são feitas adaptações nos sistemas para coleta de dados do rastreamento de olhar no ambiente de TVi. Em seguida, desenvolve-se um experimento em que as técnicas de rastreamento de olhar são usadas simultaneamente com as técnicas clássicas de avaliação de usabilidade, para avaliação de duas aplicações de TVi. Os procedimentos e o ambiente de teste utilizado são apresentados em detalhes. Os resultados obtidos da realização do experimento com 30 usuários, com ambas as técnicas, são comparados, mostrando as contribuições e limitações do rastreamento do olhar para explicar problemas de usabilidade e identificar comportamentos dos usuários. / The introduction of digital terrestrial TV in Brazil allows users of free TV, the main source of information and entertainment in the country, to have access to services offered by Interactive TV (TVi). These users, who constitute a large and heterogeneous population, composed of individuals of varying degrees of education, age and knowledge of computers, will adopt a more proactive attitude regarding this means of communication traditionally collective and passive, raising the possibility of choice and supply of personalized content. The TVi becomes possible in the form of interactive applications sent together with audiovisual content of TV. In this scenario, the eye tracking, technique used for identifying positions observed by the user, presents itself as a powerful analysis tool with the ability to identify typical behavior of users, while producing conclusive, measurable and repeatable evidence about the activities observed during the interaction of users with applications. This research explores the use of eye tracking technique in the usability evaluation of TVis applications and examines how eye tracking can be used to obtain data about users and applications interaction. Hence, the eye tracking literature is investigated; identifying techniques and methods used to obtain the observed positions by users, and how to use these techniques in the usability evaluation. To study the use of the eye tracking in usability evaluations that took place in the environment of use of TVi\'s applications, changes are made in the systems that collect the eye tracking data on this environment. Then, an experiment in which the eye tracking techniques are used together to the traditional usability evaluation techniques is developed to evaluate two TVi\'s applications. The test procedures and the test environment are presented in details. The experiment results, with 30 users, using traditional and eye tracking evaluation techniques are compared, showing the contributions and limitations of eye tracking to explain usability problems and to identify users behaviors.

This research tests the value of push and pull communication on Facebook in the first effort to test the validity of the Pub Principle and Social Intrusion Theory. This theory explains how audiences engage in a tug-of-war with commercial forces during mass communication and that commercial messaging is ultimately dependent upon the acceptance or rejection of its intended audience. The pub principle explains that social media is unlike traditional mass media and that the rules commercial forces must play by are different than for other mass media. Using a mixed-method approach, this research confirms the validity of this principle and theory. It finds that Facebook users spend significantly less time looking at push content like paid advertisements than at pull content like fan pages. This research also shows that audiences prefer dealing with pull content over push content on Facebook. The Pub Principle and Social Intrusion Theory are therefore supported by this research.

Social anxiety is a disorder where people fear social interactions and is associated with physiological changes. Eye tracking studies have shown that people with social anxiety spent more time gazing at emotional faces presented on a computer screen and spent more time gazing at the eye region. There has been limited studies on tracking eye gaze in a real-life setting interacting with another person. We used a wearable eye tracker during a brief one-on-one interview about participants’ challenges faced at work or school. Along with self-report psychological measures about social anxiety and shyness, we also measured participants’ salivary cortisol as a metric for physiological stress. We hypothesized that socially anxious individuals would have higher cortisol levels and spent more time gazing at the face. However, there was no change in cortisol levels before and after the interview. In addition, socially anxious individuals had lower cortisol levels than less anxious people. Furthermore, the time spent fixating on the region of interest (ROI), which was the face, was not correlated with social anxiety, anxiety or shyness. Paradoxically, the more socially anxious participants seem to have had a lower physiological stress response than less socially anxious participants.

Off-highway vehicle, such as excavators and forklifts, are heavy machines that are capable of causing harm to humans or damage property. Therefore, it is necessary to be able to develop interfaces for these kind of vehicles that can aid the operator to maintain a high level of situational awareness. How the interface affects the operators’ situational awareness is consequently an important metric to measure when evaluating the interface. Mixed reality simulators can be used to both develop and evaluate such interfaces in an immersive and safe environment. In this thesis we investigated how to measure situational awareness in a mixed-reality off-highway vehicle simulation scenario, without having to pause the scenario, by cross-referencing logs from the virtual environment and logs from the users' gaze position. Our method for investigating this research question was to perform a literature study and a user test. Each participant in the user test filled out a SART post-simulation questionnaire which we then compared with our measurement system.

<p>When searching for better and more practical interfaces between users and their computers, additional or alternative modes of communication between the two parties would be of great use. This thesis handles the possibilities of using eye and head movements as well as voice input as these alternative modes of communication. </p><p>One part of this project is devoted to find possible interaction techniques when navigating in a computer interface with movements of the eye or the head. The result of this part is four different controls of an interface, adapted to suit this kind of navigation, combined together in a demo application. </p><p>Another part of the project is devoted to the development of an application, with voice control as primary input method. The application developed is a simplified version of the application ActiViewer., developed by AerotechTelub Information&Media AB.</p>

<p>This work explores the possibilities of robust, noise adaptive and automatic segmentation of driver eye movements into comparable quantities as defined in the ISO 15007 and SAE J2396 standards for in-vehicle visual demand measurements. Driver eye movements have many potential applications, from the detection of driver distraction, drowsiness and mental workload, to the optimization of in-vehicle HMIs. This work focuses on SeeingMachines head and eye-tracking system SleepyHead (or FaceLAB), but is applicable to data from other similar eye-tracking systems. A robust and noise adaptive hybrid algorithm, based on two different change detection protocols and facts about eye-physiology, has been developed. The algorithm has been validated against data, video transcribed according to the ISO/SAE standards. This approach was highly successful, revealing correlations in the region of 0.999 between analysis types i.e. video transcription and the analysis developed in this work. Also, a real-time segmentation algorithm, with a unique initialization fefature, has been developed and validated based on the same approach.</p><p>This work enables real-time in-vehicle systems, based on driver eye-movements, to be developed and tested in real driving conditions. Furthermore, it has augmented FaceLAB by providing a tool that can easily be used when analysis of eye movements are of interest e.g. HMI and ergonomics studies, analysis of warnings, driver workload estimation etc.</p>