Flight decks of the future are being enhanced through improved avionics that adapt to both aircraft and operator state. Eye tracking allows for non-invasive analysis of pilot eye movements, from which a set of metrics can be derived to effectively and reliably characterize workload, this research will generate quantitative algorithms to classify pilot state through eye tracking metrics. Through various metrics within the realm of eye tracking, flight deck operation research is used to determine metric correlations between a pilot's workload and eye tracking metric patterns. The basic metrics within eye tracking, such as saccadic movement, fixations and link analysis provide clear measurable elements that experimenters analyzed to create a quantitative algorithm that reliably classifies operator workload. The study conducted at the University of Iowa's Operator Performance Lab 737-800 simulator was outfit with a Smarteye remote eye-tracking system that yielded gaze vector resolution down to 1 degree across the flight deck. Three levels of automation and 2 levels of outside visual conditions were changed on a KORD ILS approach between CAT II and CAT III visual conditions, and varying from full autopilot controlled by the pre-programmed flight management system, flight director guidance, and full manual approach with localizer and glide slope guidance. Initial subjective results indicated a successful variation in driving pilot workload across all 12 IFR pilots that were run through the 7 run testing sequence.

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether learning a meaningless phonological word-form, can affect its ability to compete with other words shortly after it was learned. According to previous experimental work we expected that a semantic referent (Leach & Samuel, 2007), and/or consolidation over a significant amount of time (Gaskell& Dumay, 2003) are necessary for a novel word-form to be able to engage in lateral inhibition with other words. In order to examine this we used the experimental design that was used by Dahan, Magnuson, Tanenhaus and Hogan (2001). Experiment 1 was a replication of the Dahan et al (2001) study. In Experiment 2 we added a condition in which a novel word was now assigned the role of the competitor, by inserting a nonword learning task (that was performed right before the Dahan task). The goal was to see whether any differences would arise between this new novel-word condition and the nonword condition. The results from Experiment 2 were inconclusive due to the stimulus set and this is why we conducted Experiment 3, which was similar to Experiment 2, but had a different stimulus set. The results of Experiment 3 showed that, in contrast to the predictions, a novel word can compete with other words, even if it does not have meaning and, moreover, this happens immediately after training. These findings indicate that 1) a word does not have to be complete (i.e. include semantic information) in order to compete with other words and 2) connections between novel and known words can form faster than what has been suggested.

Pesquisas apontam que o DMTS tem se mostrado mais eficaz no estabelecimento de classes de equivalência e maior grau de relacionamento entre estímulos de uma mesma classe do que o SMTS. Uma explicação possível para essas diferenças é que o aumento no intervalo de atraso entre a retirada do estímulo modelo e apresentação dos estímulos comparação em procedimentos de DMTS leva a uma maior exposição dos participantes ao estímulo modelo. Essa hipótese se alinha a resultados obtidos em experimentos que avaliam parâmetros de observação no estudo de discriminações condicionais, que demonstram que maiores durações de fixação do olhar sobre estímulos modelo estão associadas a maiores porcentagens de acerto no aprendizado em tarefas de MTS de identidade com modelos múltiplos. O presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar os efeitos do emprego de atraso sobre a formação de classes e sobre parâmetros de fixação do olhar sobre os estímulos modelo em tarefas de MTS a partir do rastreamento dos olhos. Nove estudantes de graduação ou pós-graduação foram expostos a um treino de discriminações condicionais com estrutura OTM para estabelecer as classes A1B1C1, A2B2C2, A3B3C3 e A4B4C4. Cada uma dessas classes foi associada a uma condição de atraso durante o treino: simultânea, atrasos 0s, 2s e 4s respectivamente. Posteriormente, foram submetidos aos testes das relações emergentes de equivalência CB e BC, e simetria BA e CA em tentativas de DMTS com atraso 0s. Sete participantes atingiram o critério de aprendizagem durante o treino e conseguiram formar classes. Apesar de todos os participantes que atingiram os critérios terem aprendido primeiro relações de DMTS, não foram observados padrões ou diferenças significativas no aprendizado das discriminações condicionais ou formação de classes em nenhuma das condições. A análise dos parâmetros de observação também não revelou diferenças significativas entre frequência e duração de fixações do olhar sobre o modelo em nenhuma nas tentativas de SMTS ou DMTS com qualquer valor de atraso. Todavia, foi observado um efeito de prática, com valores maiores de duração de fixação nos blocos iniciais do treino. Esses resultados sugerem, portanto, que o maior tempo de exposição aos modelos não é suficiente para explicar as diferenças observadas no estabelecimento de classes de equivalência em tarefas de DMTS. Entretanto, alinham-se com a perspectiva de que um maior engajamento em comportamento de observação pode estar relacionado a um maior controle de estímulos dados os resultados do efeito de prática / Researches have indicated that the DMTS has been shown to be more effective in establishing equivalence classes and a higher degree of relationship between stimuli of the same class than SMTS. One possible explanation for these differences is that the increase in the delay interval between the withdrawal of the stimulus model and the presentation of the comparison stimuli in DMTS procedures leads to greater exposure of the participants to the stimulus model. This hypothesis aligns with results obtained in experiments that evaluate observation parameters in the study of conditional discriminations, which demonstrate that longer fixation durations on model stimuli are associated with higher percentages of learning success in multiple-models identity MTS tasks. The objective of the presente study was to evaluate the effects of the use of delay on the formation of classes and on parameters of fixation of the look on the model stimuli in MTS tasks from the eye tracking. Nine graduate or postgraduate students were exposed to conditional discrimination training with OTM structure to establish classes A1B1C1, A2B2C2, A3B3C3 and A4B4C4. Each of these classes was associated with a delay condition during training: simultaneous, delays 0s, 2s and 4s respectively. Subsequently, they were submitted to the tests of the emergent equivalence relations CB and BC, and symmetry BA and CA in attempts of DMTS with delay 0s. Seven participants reached the learning criterion during the training and were able to form classes. Although all participants who met the criteria first learned DMTS relationships, no significant patterns or differences in learning conditional discrimination or class formation were observed in any of the conditions. The analysis of the observation parameters also did not reveal significant differences between frequency and duration of fixations of the look on the model in any in the attempts of SMTS or DMTS in any with any value of delay. However, a practical effect was observed, with higher fixation duration values in the initial training blocks. These results suggest, therefore, that the greater time of exposure to the models is not enough to explain the differences observed in the establishment of equivalence classes in DMTS tasks. However, they are aligned with the view that greater engagement in observation behavior may be related to greater control of stimuli given the results of the effect of practice

This thesis aims to study how infants actively look at different social figures: parents and strangers. To study infants’ looking behavior in “live” situations, new methods to record looking behavior were tested. Study 1 developed a method to record looking behavior in “live” situations: a head-mounted camera. This method was calibrated for a number of angles and then used to measure how infants look at faces and objects in two “live” situations, a conversation and a joint action. High reliability was found for the head-mounted camera in horizontal positions and the possibility of using it in a number of “live” situations with infants from 6 to 14 months of age. In Study 2, the head-mounted camera and a static camera and were used in a “live” ambiguous situation to study infants’ preferences to refer to and to use the information from parents and strangers. The results from Experiment 1 of Study 2 showed that if no information is provided in ambiguous situations in the lab, infants at 10 months of age look more at the experimenter than at the parent. Further, Experiment 2 of Study 2 showed that the infants also used more of the emotional information provided by the experimenter than by the parent to regulate their behavior.  In Study 3, looking behavior was analyzed in detail when infants looked at pictures of their parents’ and strangers’ emotional facial expressions. Corneal eye tracking was used to record looking. In this study, the influence of identity, gender, emotional expressions and parental leave on looking behavior was analyzed. The results indicated that identity and experience of looking at others influences how infants discriminate emotions in pictures of facial expressions. Fourteen-month-old infants who had been with both parents in parental leave discriminated more emotional expressions in strangers than infants who only had one parent on leave. Further, they reacted with larger pupil dilation toward the parent who was actually in parental leave than to the parent not on leave. Finally, fearful emotional expressions were more broadly scanned than neutral or happy facial expressions. The results of these studies indicate that infants discriminate between mothers’, fathers’ and strangers’ emotional facial expressions and use the other people’s expressions to regulate their behavior. In addition, a new method, a head-mounted camera was shown to capture infants’ looking behavior in “live” situations.

The purpose of the current thesis was to investigate the role of gaze direction, when making preference decisions. Previous research has reported a progressive gaze bias towards the preferred stimuli as participants near a decision, termed the gaze cascade effect (Shimojo, Simion, Shimojo & Scheir, 2003). The gaze cascade effect is strongest during the final 1500 msec prior to decision (Shimojo et al.). Previous eye-tracking research has displayed natural viewing biases towards the upper visual field. However, previous investigations have not investigated the impact of image placement on the gaze cascade effect. Study 1 investigated the impact of presenting stimuli vertically on the gaze cascade effect. Results indicated that natural scanning biases towards the upper visual field impacted the gaze cascade effect. The gaze cascade effect was reliably seen only when the preferred image was presented in the upper visual field. Using vertically paired stimuli study 2 investigated the impact of choice difficulty on the gaze cascade effect. Similar to study 1 the gaze cascade effect was only reliably seen when the preferred image was presented in the upper visual field. Additionally choice difficulty impacted the gaze cascade effect where easy decisions displayed a larger gaze cascade effect than hard decisions. Study 3 investigated if the gaze cascade effect is unique to preference decisions or present during all visual decisions. Judgments of concavity using perceptually ambiguous spheres were used and no gaze cascade effect was observed. Study 3 indicated that the gaze cascade effect is unique to preference decisions. Results of the current experiments indicate the gaze cascade effect is qualified by the spatial layout of the stimuli and choice difficulty. Results of the current experiments are consistent with previous eye-tracking research demonstrating biases towards the upper visual field and offering support for Prevics theory on how we interact in visual space.

Two novel personal calibration procedures that do not require active user participation are presented. These procedures, in conjunction with a state-of-the-art remote eye-gaze tracking (REGT) technology, allow estimation of the angle between the optical and visual axes (angle kappa) automatically without explicit/active user involvement. The first algorithm for the binocular estimation of angle kappa (BEAK) is based on the assumption that at each time instant both eyes look at the same point on a surface with a known geometry (e.g., a computer monitor). The sensitivity of the BEAK procedure to the geometry of the observation surface and to the noise in the estimates of the optical axis is studied both analytically and in computer simulations. Experimental results with 4 adult subjects suggest that with the current REGT technology angle kappa can be estimated with an RMS error of 0.5°. The second personal calibration algorithm (‘calibrate and validate’, CaVa) adopts a probabilistic approach to the estimation of angle kappa in infants. Even though the presentation of visual stimuli at known positions is part of the procedure, the CaVa algorithm does not require/assume continuous fixation on the presented targets. If an infant attends to roughly half of the presented targets, angle kappa can be estimated accurately and with high confidence. In experiments with five babies, the average difference between repeated measurements of angle kappa was 0.04 ± 0.31°. The second part of the thesis describes two methods for automated measurement of eye misalignment in adults and infants. These methods are based on the user-calibration-free (UCF) technology presented in the first part of the thesis. The first method is based on the clinical Hirschberg test. It is shown that the UCF-REGT technology can improve significantly the accuracy of the Hirschberg test by enabling the estimation of subject-specific parameters (the Hirschberg ratio and angle kappa) in infants. The maximum error in the estimation of the horizontal and vertical components of eye misalignment in five orthotropic infants was shown to be less than 1°, which is significantly better than the accuracy of a standard clinical Hirschberg test. Finally, a novel Eye-Tracker Based Test (ETBT) for the estimation of the maximum (manifest + latent) angle of deviation is presented. ETBT is based on the UCF-REGT system. ETBT allows free head movements and does not require continuous fixation on specific targets. Experiments with 22 adult subjects demonstrated a good agreement of 0.7 ± 1.7° between ETBT and the gold-standard clinical procedure—the altenate prism and cover test. A pilot study with 5 orthotropic infants and one infant with strabismus demonstrated that the ETBT can be used in infants.

Two novel personal calibration procedures that do not require active user participation are presented. These procedures, in conjunction with a state-of-the-art remote eye-gaze tracking (REGT) technology, allow estimation of the angle between the optical and visual axes (angle kappa) automatically without explicit/active user involvement. The first algorithm for the binocular estimation of angle kappa (BEAK) is based on the assumption that at each time instant both eyes look at the same point on a surface with a known geometry (e.g., a computer monitor). The sensitivity of the BEAK procedure to the geometry of the observation surface and to the noise in the estimates of the optical axis is studied both analytically and in computer simulations. Experimental results with 4 adult subjects suggest that with the current REGT technology angle kappa can be estimated with an RMS error of 0.5°. The second personal calibration algorithm (‘calibrate and validate’, CaVa) adopts a probabilistic approach to the estimation of angle kappa in infants. Even though the presentation of visual stimuli at known positions is part of the procedure, the CaVa algorithm does not require/assume continuous fixation on the presented targets. If an infant attends to roughly half of the presented targets, angle kappa can be estimated accurately and with high confidence. In experiments with five babies, the average difference between repeated measurements of angle kappa was 0.04 ± 0.31°. The second part of the thesis describes two methods for automated measurement of eye misalignment in adults and infants. These methods are based on the user-calibration-free (UCF) technology presented in the first part of the thesis. The first method is based on the clinical Hirschberg test. It is shown that the UCF-REGT technology can improve significantly the accuracy of the Hirschberg test by enabling the estimation of subject-specific parameters (the Hirschberg ratio and angle kappa) in infants. The maximum error in the estimation of the horizontal and vertical components of eye misalignment in five orthotropic infants was shown to be less than 1°, which is significantly better than the accuracy of a standard clinical Hirschberg test. Finally, a novel Eye-Tracker Based Test (ETBT) for the estimation of the maximum (manifest + latent) angle of deviation is presented. ETBT is based on the UCF-REGT system. ETBT allows free head movements and does not require continuous fixation on specific targets. Experiments with 22 adult subjects demonstrated a good agreement of 0.7 ± 1.7° between ETBT and the gold-standard clinical procedure—the altenate prism and cover test. A pilot study with 5 orthotropic infants and one infant with strabismus demonstrated that the ETBT can be used in infants.

2012年9月，NCC終於初步解禁置入性行銷，並公布有關於電視節目置入的暫行條款。事實上，美日等先進國家之置入性行銷早已成熟，韓國政府也鼓勵韓國企業進行置入，以資助影視產業的發展，而台灣雖然過去已有業者進行置入性行銷，但囿於法令限制，在置入性行銷的發展仍是相當遲緩的，也因此，台灣在影視產業一直得不到到足夠的資金去拍攝優質影片。 幸好，目前政府已逐步開放置入性行銷，不過目前國內廠商對於置入性行銷收費標準仍然相當混亂，因此，本研究期盼能透過釐清各置入點之效果以提供國內廠商收費的參考指標。過去研究置入性行銷效果多以問卷方式調查，然而使用問卷方式調查會有事後回憶誤差等問題，本研究採用眼動儀來直接測量受測者之收視過程，紀錄受測者之眼球掃視軌跡以及凝視個數、凝視時間，輔以問卷測量消費者之回憶度、辨識度、品牌態度以及購買意願，以更嚴謹的方式找出最佳置入點。 本研究參考過往文獻，找出涉入度以及置入手法兩個自變項，確認涉入度與置入手法對於消費者在觀看戲劇時是否有不同的感受，怎麼樣的情形置入效果會最佳。 研究以實驗法進行，自變項為涉入度以及置入手法，因此本研究將受測者分為高涉入度顯性、高涉入度隱性、低涉入度顯性、低涉入度隱性共四組。研究結果發現，顯性置入與隱性置入在受測者回憶度上有顯著的差別，且在隱性置入的情況，低涉入度的產品相較於高涉入度的產品更容易被忽略。 研究也發現，受測者在觀賞戲劇時，影響置入效果最大的因素是置入產品與劇情的相關性，其餘的影響因素還有大小、顏色、位置、競爭等要素， 建議未來廠商在進行置入時可依據本身產品特性並考慮各種影響因素，以達到最佳置入效果。 / Because of our government’s restriction, in the past few years, product placement has always been a debated issue. Due to these restrictions, our TV and movie industries are always lack of funding to produce high quality content. Fortunately, on 2012 August, NCC finally agreed gradually deregulation. However, our development of product placement still falls behind other countries and the charging standard is still in a mess. In order to provide domestic firms a charging reference, we started this research, hoping to understand the effect of every location. Instead of using questionnaire as our only measurement, we also use eye tracking to help us understand the effect more clearly. According to the references, we found out product placement and involvement as our independent variables and divided our subjects to four groups. Those are high involvement explicit, low involvement explicit, high involvement implicit and low involvement implicit. The research outcome shows that different location would bring to significantly different degree of recall. People who were exposure to the explicit drama clip would have higher degree of recall than those who were exposure in the implicit drama clip. And we also found out that if our product was a low involvement product, the product would not be noticed especially in the implicit drama clip. We also found that when people saw a drama, the most important factor to affect their memory was the product’s connection with the plot. Other factors were color, size, placement and competition. We suggested that when domestic firms want to make a product placement, they could consider their own product’s attribute and all these factors together to make the best product placement effect.

The accurate integration of audio-visual emotion cues is critical for social interactions and requires efficient processing of facial cues. Gaze behavior of typically developing (TD) individuals and individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) was measured via eye-tracking during the perception of dynamic audio-visual emotion (DAVE) stimuli. This study provides information about the regions of the face sampled during an emotion perception task that is relatively more complex than those used in previous studies, providing both bimodal (auditory and visual) and dynamic (biological motion) cues. Results indicated that the ASD group was less accurate at emotion detection and demonstrated less of a visual-affective bias than TD individuals. Both groups displayed similar fixation patterns across regions during the perception of congruent audio-visual stimuli. However, between-group analyses revealed that fixation patterns differed significantly by facial regions during the perception of both congruent and incongruent movies together. In addition, fixation duration to critical regions (i.e., face, core, eyes) was negatively correlated with measures of ASD symptomatology and social impairment. Findings suggest weaknesses in the early integration of audio-visual information, automatic perception of emotion, and efficient detection of affective conflict in individuals with ASD. Implications for future research and social skills intervention programs are discussed.

The purpose of the current thesis was to investigate the role of gaze direction, when making preference decisions. Previous research has reported a progressive gaze bias towards the preferred stimuli as participants near a decision, termed the gaze cascade effect (Shimojo, Simion, Shimojo & Scheir, 2003). The gaze cascade effect is strongest during the final 1500 msec prior to decision (Shimojo et al.). Previous eye-tracking research has displayed natural viewing biases towards the upper visual field. However, previous investigations have not investigated the impact of image placement on the gaze cascade effect. Study 1 investigated the impact of presenting stimuli vertically on the gaze cascade effect. Results indicated that natural scanning biases towards the upper visual field impacted the gaze cascade effect. The gaze cascade effect was reliably seen only when the preferred image was presented in the upper visual field. Using vertically paired stimuli study 2 investigated the impact of choice difficulty on the gaze cascade effect. Similar to study 1 the gaze cascade effect was only reliably seen when the preferred image was presented in the upper visual field. Additionally choice difficulty impacted the gaze cascade effect where easy decisions displayed a larger gaze cascade effect than hard decisions. Study 3 investigated if the gaze cascade effect is unique to preference decisions or present during all visual decisions. Judgments of concavity using perceptually ambiguous spheres were used and no gaze cascade effect was observed. Study 3 indicated that the gaze cascade effect is unique to preference decisions. Results of the current experiments indicate the gaze cascade effect is qualified by the spatial layout of the stimuli and choice difficulty. Results of the current experiments are consistent with previous eye-tracking research demonstrating biases towards the upper visual field and offering support for Prevics theory on how we interact in visual space.