Cognitive styles and eye movement patterns: an empirical investigation into user interactions with interface elements and visualisation objects of a scientific information system

摘要

An eye-tracking study was conducted to investigate the impact of astrophysicists’ cognitive styles on how they interact with interface visualisation objects of the Astrophysics Data System. Twenty users participated in this study by first completing a cognitive test, then performing tasks in version 2.0 of the system using its visualisation tools. The interface objects were coded into ACT (functional icons), HELP (help information), IMG (images or visualisations), and TXT (text information). The eye movement patterns of participants who were imagers, analysers, or analytic-imagers) were compared with those who were non-imagers, non-analysers, or non- analytic-imagers. Qualitative inspection of heat maps was performed to complement and validate the differences found through quantitative data analysis. Participants’ cognitive styles had significant impact on their interest and noticeability measures. Imagers not only clicked on and visited more IMGs, they also were more actively engaged with ACTs and TXTs than non-imagers. While analysers focused more on HELP, analytic-imagers also fixated or gazed significantly longer on HELP than non- analytic-imagers. Empirical studies that connect cognitive style with users’ eye movements are rather limited. Findings of the present study provide insights into the interplay between users’ cognitive styles and their eye movements when viewing specific types of interface objects.