Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs) have been shown to significantly improve students' learning in a variety of domains, including physics, mathematics, and thermodynamics. Tutorial dialogues is one of the strategies used by ITSs and has been empirically shown to significantly improve learning. This project investigates how different students interact with the tutorial dialogues in EER-Tutor, using both eye-gaze data and student-system interaction logs. EER-Tutor is a constraint-based ITS that teaches conceptual database design. In order to have a more comprehensive and accurate picture of a user's interactions with a learning environment, we need to know which interface features s/he visually inspected, what strategies s/he used and what cognitive efforts s/he made to complete tasks. Such knowledge allows intelligent systems to be proactive, rather than reactive, to users' actions. Eye-movement tracking is therefore a potential source of real-time adaptation in a learning environment. Our findings indicate that advanced students are selective of the interface areas they visually focus on whereas novices waste time by paying attention to interface areas that are inappropriate for the task at hand. Novices are also unaware that they need help with understanding the domain concepts discussed in the tutorial dialogues. We were able to accurately classify students, for example as novice or advanced students, using only eye-gaze or EER-Tutor log data as well as a combination of EER-Tutor and eye-gaze features. The cost of eye-tracking is justified as classifiers using only eye-gaze features sometimes perform as well as those utilising both EER-Tutor and eye-gaze data and outperform classifiers using only EER-Tutor data. The ability to classify students will therefore allow an ITS to intervene when needed and better guide students' learning if it detects sub-optimal behaviour.

Much of what is known about how we process faces comes from research using static stimuli. Thus, the primary goal of the present series of studies was to compare the processing of more naturalistic, dynamic face stimuli to the processing of static face stimuli. A second goal of the present series of studies was to provide insight into the development of attentional mechanisms that underlie perception of faces. Results from the eye-tracking study (Chapter 2) indicated that viewers attended to faces more than to other parts of the static or dynamic social scenes. Importantly, motion cues were associated with a reduction in the number, but an increase in the average duration of fixations on faces. Children showed the largest effects related to the introduction of motion cues, suggesting that they find dynamic faces difficult to process. Then using selective attention tasks (Chapters 3-5), interactions between the processing of facial expression and identity while participants viewed static and dynamic faces were examined. When processing static faces, viewers experienced significant interference from task-irrelevant cues (expression or identity) while processing the relevant cues (identity or expression). Age-related differences in interference effects were not evident (Chapter 3); however, biological sex and perceptual biases did contribute to the levels of interference seen with static faces (Chapters 4-5). During dynamic trials, however, viewers (regardless of age, sex, or perceptual bias) experienced negligible interference from task-irrelevant facial cues. Taken together, these findings stress the importance of using dynamic displays when characterizing typical face processing mechanisms, using the same methods across development, and of considering individual differences when examining various face processing abilities.

Being able to predict the goal of other people’s actions is an important aspect of our daily lives. This ability allows us to interact timely with others and adjust our behaviour appropriately. The general aim of the present thesis was to explore which processes best explain our ability to predict other people’s action goals during development. There are different theories concerning this ability. Some stress the fact that observation of others actions activate the same areas of the brain involved in our own action production, this way helping us to understand what they are doing. Other theories suggest that we understand actions independently of our own motor proficiency. For example, the ability to predict other peoples’ action goals could be based on visual experience seeing others actions acquired trough time or on the assumption that actions will be performed in a rational way. The studies included in this thesis use eye tracking to study infants’ and adults’ action prediction during observation of goal directed actions. Prediction is operationalized as predictive gaze shifts to the goal of the action. Study I showed that infants are sensitive to the functionality of hand configuration and predict the goal of reaching actions but not moving fists. Fourteen-month-olds also looked earlier to the goal of reaching actions when the goal was to contain rather than displace, indicating that the overarching goal (contain/displace) impact the ability to predict local action goals, in this case the goal of the initial reaching action. Study II demonstrated that 6-month-olds, an age when infants have not yet started placing objects into containers, did not look to the container ahead of time when observing another person placing objects into containers. They did, however, look to the container ahead of time when a ball was moving on its own. The results thus indicate that different processes might be used to predict human actions and other events. Study III showed that 8-month-old infants in China looked to the mouth of an actor eating with chopsticks ahead of time but not when the actor was eating with a spoon. Swedish infants on the other hand looked predictively to the mouth when the actor was eating with a spoon but not with chopsticks. This study demonstrates that prediction of others’ goal directed actions is not simply based on own motor ability (as assumed in Study I and II) but rather on a combination of visual/cultural experience and own motor ability. The results of these studies suggest that both own motor proficiency as well as visual experience with observing similar actions is necessary for our ability to predict other people’s action goals. These results are discusses in the light of a newer account of the mirror neuron system taking both statistical regularities in the environment and own motor capabilities into account.

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Two amnesic patients with MTL damage that included the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex were tested along controls on a series of “oddity” discrimination tasks, in which they had to select an odd item from a visual array. Participants’ eye moments were monitored while they performed these tasks. Three types of stimuli were used: greebles, scenes, and faces. Results revealed that patients were impaired on tasks that required them to discriminate between items that shared features in common and tasks that required processing items from different viewpoints. An analysis of their eye movements revealed that their impaired performance was linked with decreased viewing times of target items compared to controls, when discriminating between greebles and scenes; their poor performance on the faces task could not be explained by the same token.

Two amnesic patients with MTL damage that included the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex were tested along controls on a series of “oddity” discrimination tasks, in which they had to select an odd item from a visual array. Participants’ eye moments were monitored while they performed these tasks. Three types of stimuli were used: greebles, scenes, and faces. Results revealed that patients were impaired on tasks that required them to discriminate between items that shared features in common and tasks that required processing items from different viewpoints. An analysis of their eye movements revealed that their impaired performance was linked with decreased viewing times of target items compared to controls, when discriminating between greebles and scenes; their poor performance on the faces task could not be explained by the same token.

The purpose of this dissertation is to understand how students distribute their attention while reading academic journal articles under time pressure. Given that most of the reading done in university is commonly time-sensitive and task-dependent, this dissertation explores how students actually shift their attention across the discrete sections of a journal article in the available time to identify and extract task-relevant information. Addressing gaps in the literature, the experiments in this dissertation observe the impact of the following three factors on strategic shifts in attention during study: (1) varied time conditions; (2) the presence/absence of summary information; and (3) the experience of the reader in terms of education level. The experimental methods used in this series of studies are consistent across all three chapters. Participants are given two 5-page academic journal articles to read on cognitive psychology for an impending test. Participants’ eye movement data are analyzed for the total adjusted viewing time the eyes spend in each section of the article, i.e., viewing time in each section was divided by the number of words in each section. The experiments in Chapter 2 examine overt attention when studying with and without a time constraint. Participants were given either 2 minutes of study time or unlimited study time. Analyses of the eye movement data reveal a reduced reading effect both when study time is restricted and unlimited. Specifically, the results showed that as time progresses, participants tend to read less and skim more, with the largest amount of adjusted time being spent on the Abstract. Chapter 3 examines further the apparent importance of the Abstract when reading under time constraint. It investigates whether people allocate more attention to the Abstract relative to other sections of the journal article based on its position or its summary content. Also, Chapter 3 explores whether the presence of an Abstract impacts what people read next in the article. Participants are given a limited time in which to read one of two versions of the articles to read, one version with an Abstract, the other without. The findings show that position, rather than summary content, seems to explain the amount of adjusted viewing time on the Abstract. Additionally, the summary information contained in an Abstract impacts what people read next in the article. Chapter 4 examines the extent to which participants’ education level impacts their use of a skimming strategy for studying. Here, participants form three different groups based on their year of study: graduates, senior undergraduates (3rd and 4th year), and junior undergraduates (1st and 2nd year). Overall, the results suggest that, when studying journal articles under time pressure, skimming behaviour changes from a primarily linear-skimming strategy (reading from beginning to end) to a more targeted-skimming strategy with increased education level. Finally, in the General Discussion in Chapter 5, a summary of the findings of this dissertation is considered in light of the literature on complex factors that impact attention and information-gain. The chapter also outlines hypotheses for future testing of overt attention while reading journal articles under time pressure.

Στον ολοένα και αυξανόμενο όγκο πληροφοριών που υπάρχει διαθέσιμος οποιαδήποτε στιγμή στο Διαδίκτυο, ο τρόπος πρόσβασης του χρήστη σε αυτόν γίνεται διαρκώς ευκολότερος. Ο κάθε χρήστης του Διαδικτύου έχει ανά πάσα στιγμή τη δυνατότητα να βρει πληροφορίες συγκεντρωμένες σε έναν χώρο πολύ πιο εύκολα από ότι θα έκανε για παράδειγμα σε μια βιβλιοθήκη. Ενδιαφέρον παρουσιάζει ο τρόπος με τον οποίο ο κάθε χρήστης φτάνει στην εύρεση της πληροφορίας και η ενδεχόμενη ύπαρξη ενός μοντέλου στο οποίο βασίζεται αυτή η συμπεριφορά. Επειδή ο χώρος του Διαδικτύου είναι αχανής και πολύπλευρος, στα πλαίσια της παρούσας διπλωματικής επιλέξαμε να επικεντρωθούμε μόνο στις Σελίδες Κοινωνικής Δικτύωσης (Social Network Sites) και πιο συγκεκριμένα στο Facebook και στο Google+. Η επιλογή των δυο αυτών σελίδων έγινε με κριτήριο την ομοιότητα και των παρεμφερών δυνατοτήτων που προσφέρουν και οι δύο. Επίσης, μας δόθηκε η δυνατότητα να μελετήσουμε τη συμπεριφορά των χρηστών σε έναν χώρο, που για τους περισσότερους ήταν άγνωστος, όπως είναι το Google+, το οποίο μόλις πριν από λίγο καιρό έγινε διαθέσιμο σε όλους τους χρήστες του Διαδικτύου. Έτσι, λοιπόν, σχεδιάσαμε ένα πείραμα στο οποίο οι συμμετέχοντες θα αναλάμβαναν να κάνουν ένα συγκεκριμένο αριθμό παρόμοιων εργασιών τόσο στο Google+ όσο και στο Facebook και χρησιμοποιώντας τον Eye Tracker της Tobii καταγράψαμε τη συμπεριφορά τους. Αξιοποιώντας τις δυνατότητες, τις οποίες μας παρέχει το Tobii Studio, το λογισμικό που συνοδεύει το μηχάνημα, επιχειρήσαμε να αναλύσουμε αυτές τις συμπεριφορές βάσει κάποιων χαρακτηριστικών, που ονομάζονται μετρικές. Επειδή, όμως, το λογισμικό περιορίζεται σε συγκεκριμένα χαρακτηριστικά που υπολογίζει, κρίθηκε αναγκαία η ανάπτυξη μιας μεθόδου με την οποία θα γινόταν η εξαγωγή περαιτέρω χρήσιμων χαρακτηριστικών , ενός είδους εργαλείου σε πολύ αρχικό στάδιο ωστόσο. Τέλος, χρησιμοποιώντας το SPSS κάναμε στατιστική ανάλυση των αποτελεσμάτων τόσο του πειράματος όσο και των συνοδευτικών σε αυτό ερωτηματολογίων για να τα επιβεβαιώσουμε και στατιστικά. / In the constantly increasing mass of information that is available anytime on the Internet, the way each user accesses it becomes easier. Each user of the Internet has at any time the opportunity to find information gathered all in one place a lot easier than he could do in a library for example. The way each user comes to finding that information and the potential existence of a model on which this behavior is based, is of great interest. Due to the fact that the Internet is vast and versatile, in this thesis we decided to focus only on social network sites and more specifically on Facebook and Google+. The choice of these two sites was made based on their resemblance and the similar opportunities they both have to offer. In addition, we were given the chance to study the behavior of users in a site, with which most people were not familiar, like Google+, which has been made available to everyone only a couple of months ago. So we designed an experiment on which the participants would undertake a certain amount of similar tasks both in Google+ and Facebook and using Tobii’s Eye Tracker we recorded their behavior. Utilizing the abilities that Tobii Studio, the software accompanying the Eye Tracker, offers us, we attempted to analyze these behaviors based on some characteristics, known as metrics. However due to the fact that the software is limited only on certain characteristics that it measures, we judged it was necessary to develop a method that would extract some more useful characteristics, like a tool, although in a very early stage. Finally, using SPSS we made a statistical analysis of both the experiment’s and the accompanying questionnaire’s results to confirm them also statistically.

L'apprentissage de la lecture nécessite notamment d'acquérir une coordination fine des mouvements des yeux, de l’attention et des traitements lexicaux afin de permettre une lecture fluide et efficace. Contrairement à ce que nous ressentons, le comportement des yeux est très complexe et dépend de plusieurs facteurs liés aux propriétés du langage, aux connaissances lexicales, à l’expertise en lecture de l’individu et à la nature de la tâche. L’étude des différences interindividuelles entre les experts, les bons et les faibles lecteurs peut nous aider à mieux comprendre les processus sous – jacents de la lecture.Le contrôle fin des mouvements des yeux peut être étudié en recourant à des analyses statistiques ou à des modèles computationnels qui simulent les processus de la lecture et reproduisent des mouvements oculaires, spatialement et temporellement. Dans ces travaux de thèse, nous avons utilisé les analyses statistiques et la modélisation computationnelle pour comprendre pourquoi nous observons des différences dans les comportements en lecture entre différents groupes d’âge (adultes vs enfants) et au sein du même groupe d’âge (faibles vs bons lecteurs). Ainsi, les changements observés entre ces différents groupes peuvent être expliqués par des différences dues à l’effet du développement du contrôle oculomoteur et/ou des compétences en lecture. Une question fondamentale est la compréhension de la cause et de l’effet de ces changements au niveau des mouvements des yeux.Ainsi, les questions cruciales auxquelles nous tenterons de répondre sont les suivantes: quelles sont les différences au niveau des comportements oculomoteurs entre les différents groupes d’âge des lecteurs (adultes vs enfants) ? Pourquoi observons- nous ces différences ? Pour un public ciblé d’enfants, quelles sont les caractéristiques des comportements oculaires sur les mots, en termes de fixations, de saccades ? Comment en rendre compte dans une démarche de modélisation des processus oculomoteurs de la lecture ? / Learning to read requires the coordination of eye movements, attention, as well as lexical processing in order to achieve smooth reading. Contrary to what we perceive, the behavior of our eyes is very complex and depends on several factors linked to the properties of the language, the lexical knowledge, the reading skills and the goal of the task. The study of interindividual differences could help us to better understand the reading processes.The eye movement control during reading could be analyzed with statistical methods and with computational models which can simulate the reading processes spatially and temporally. In this work, we used both methods in order to better understand why we observe differences in the reading patterns between different groups of readers of different ages (adults vs children) and of the same age (poor and good readers). The observed changes between different groups could be explained by differences in the oculomotor development and/or by differences in lexical knowledge. One fundamental question is to understand the causes of these changes at the level of eye movement control.The crucial questions that we tried to investigate in this work are the following: what are the differences in terms of eye movements between different groups of reading age? Why do we observe these differences? What are the patterns of eye movements for different groups of poor and good readers of the same age? How can we simulate the observed patterns with computational modeling of reading?

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka hur bekanthet och skrivfel påverkar rekryterares bedömningar när de läser personliga brev i arbetsansökningar.Ett experiment utfördes med 41 försökspersoner som var studenter från Luleå tekniska universitet. Försökspersonen läste igenom två olika personliga brev där bekanthet manipulerats med ordval och vissa skrivfel förekom och bedömde kandidaterna och de personliga breven. Ögonrörelser registrerades med hjälp av eye-tracking-teknik som visar på vad och hur länge blicken fixeras. Data om ögonrörelser och bedömningar analyserades med ANOVA och svar på öppna frågor analyserades med tematisk analys. Resultatet visar att försökspersonerna uppmärksammade skrivfel och en tendens till att stavfel minskar sannolikheten att kandidaten kallas till en intervju. Bekanthet hade ingen effekt på bedömningar.