bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Home quarantine - based rhythmic exercises: new fitness assessment and intervention in teaching physical education
Authors: Garcia Marino A. , Custodio Emerito R.
Published: February 2021

Background and Study Aim. The COVID – 19 pandemic has post threats on the physical and mental fitness of the people. Thus, the study determined the effectiveness of home quarantine - based rhythmic exercises to the fitness level of the university students in physical education.

Material and Methods. University students were the participants of the study. 200 student populations who were taking physical education subject in the year 2020 were considered. Quasi – experimental research design was employed and 96 participants between the age bracket of 18 - 26 (74 females & 22 males) were chosen using simple random sampling in determining the population size of the study. SPSS program was used in the analysis in the obtained data.

Results. The result shown that there is a significant difference between the pre – test and post – test results in the fitness level of the participants in body mass index (T= -3.482, p < .001), cardiovascular endurance (T= -4.193, p < .000), flexibility (T= -6.279, p <.000), muscular endurance (T= -9.553, p <.000), and muscular strength (T= -7.569, p < .000) performing the home quarantine-based rhythmic exercises.

Conclusion. Further, it is concluded that engaging in two (2) months home quarantine – based rhythmic exercises from 30 minutes to 1 hour with moderate to vigorous intensity augment the physical fitness level of an individual. Moreover, it is recommended to put vision accounts in strengthening the inclusion of home quarantine - based rhythmic exercises in teaching physical education either in synchronous and asynchronous in teaching – learning process.
La Universidad Popular José Martí en la órbita del pensamiento político de Julio Antonio Mella. Cuba, 1923-1927
Authors: Cordoví Núñez Yoel
Published: February 2021

El artículo tiene como objetivo principal determinar y analizar las etapas que marcaron los momentos de definición de la labor de la Universidad Popular José Martí, desde que fue fundada en La Habana en 1923 hasta su definitiva clausura por el gobierno de Gerardo Machado en 1927, así como valorar el alcance de sus objetivos y resultados. El texto se adentra en las actividades docentes y políticas de la Universidad Popular, concebidas en sus vínculos con el proceso de reforma universitaria, así como en la estructura administrativa, el diseño curricular de extensión y el significado de sus propuestas culturales y educativas contrahegemónicas. Estos problemas permiten comprender la estrategia política trazada por su artífice, el líder estudiantil Julio Antonio Mella.
Historia de la Universidad Popular “Juan Ramón Lestani” (Chaco, Argentina, circa 1929-1960)
Authors: Artieda Teresa Laura
Published: February 2021

En este artículo estudio la historia de la Universidad Popular “Juan R. Lestani”, ubicada en una provincia del nordeste argentino, Chaco, en el período que media entre finales de los años veinte y los años sesenta del siglo pasado. Con ese propósito examino las concepciones que incidieron en su configuración, la formación ofrecida, las características del edificio y las huellas de los orígenes europeos. Introduzco el trabajo con una descripción del contexto histórico en el cual esta Universidad se constituye, y de los orígenes europeos de las universidades populares. Esta introducción permite poner en perspectiva a la institución local, de modo de comprenderla como la manifestación de una historia más amplia en cuya trama es posible descubrir lo que tiene de común con organizaciones similares, así como rasgos que son singulares. Documentos del archivo de la institución, entrevistas a directivos anteriores y actuales y diarios locales constituyeron el corpus de fuentes primarias utilizadas.
Tres Repúblicas Barriales y sus Universidades. Las Universidades Populares en la ciudad de Buenos Aires en el período de entreguerras: un esquema preliminar
Authors: Yaverovski Alejandro Martín
Published: February 2021

Este trabajo aporta una nueva perspectiva al conocimiento histórico de las Universidades Populares. Para ello se analiza la experiencia de tres instituciones de la ciudad de Buenos Aires: la Universidad Popular de La Boca, fundada en 1917; la Universidad Popular de Boedo, cuya fundación data de 1928; y la Sociedad Luz Universidad Popular, creada en 1899 por iniciativa del Partido Socialista, y actualmente emplazada en el barrio porteño de Barracas.

Dichas instituciones educativas son estudiadas en relación con el concepto dual de barrio, propio del desarrollo de la historia local de la ciudad de Buenos Aires. Se trabaja como hipótesis que la pertenencia a “lo barrial” —enunciada incluso desde su nomenclatura en dos de los casos— influyó en la constitución de las identidades de los barrios y de las Universidades Populares, así como en el despliegue de una red de vínculos barriales.
Escritores Públicos y Prensa en la Nueva Granada, 1848-1853
Authors: Becerra Mora José Camilo
Published: February 2021

El propósito del presente artículo es caracterizar a los publicistas neogranadinos entre 1848 y 1853. Para materializar este objetivo, la primera parte analiza el rol de la prensa en la configuración de un tipo inédito de escritor público. La segunda sección expone las facetas que desarrollaron aquellos letrados. Estudiar a los escritores públicos constituye un avance importante en el análisis de los partidos políticos como elementos fundamentales en la configuración de lo que Pierre Rosanvallon denominó como lo político, pues como se intentará demostrar, quienes se encargaron de configurar los partidos políticos, se preocuparon por dotarlos con elementos intelectuales complejos[1].

 

[1] Pierre Rosanvallon, Por una historia conceptual de lo político (Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2003), 19-20.
Teresa González Pérez (Coordinadora), La educación de las mujeres en Iberoamérica. Análisis histórico. Valencia: Tirant Humanidades, 2019.
Authors: Rodríguez Gómez Juana María
Published: February 2021

Este libro, La educación de las mujeres en Iberoamérica. Análisis histórico coordinado por la profesora Teresa González, contribuye al desarrollo del conocimiento universitario y da respuesta a una necesidad social que trata de reconocer el papel de la mujer en el desarrollo de las sociedades y de la educación.
Reading English-Language Haiku: Processes of Meaning Construction Revealed by Eye Movements
Authors: Mueller Hermann J , Geyer Thomas , Günther Franziska , Kacian Jim , Pierides Stella
Published: February 2021

In the present study, poets and cognitive scientists came together to investigate the construction of meaning in the process of reading normative, 3-line English-language haiku (ELH), as found in leading ELH journals. The particular haiku which we presented to our readers consisted of two semantically separable parts, or images, that were set in a ‘tense’ relationship by the poet. In our sample of poems, the division, or cut, between the two parts was positioned either after line 1 or after line 2; and the images related to each other in terms of either a context–action association (context–action haiku) or a conceptually more abstract association (juxtaposition haiku). From a constructivist perspective, understanding such haiku would require the reader to integrate these parts into a coherent ‘meaning Gestalt’, mentally (re-)creating the pattern intended by the poet (or one from within the poem’s meaning potential). To examine this process, we recorded readers’ eye movements, and we obtained measures of memory for the read poems as well as subjective ratings of comprehension difficulty and understanding achieved. The results indicate that processes of meaning construction are reflected in patterns of eye movements during reading (1st-pass) and re-reading (2nd- and 3rd-pass). From those, the position of the cut (after line 1 vs. after line 2) and, to some extent, the type of haiku (context–action vs. juxtaposition) can be ‘recovered’. Moreover, post-reading, readers tended to explicitly recognize a particular haiku they had read if they had been able to understand the poem, pointing to a role of actually resolving the haiku’s meaning (rather than just attempting to resolve it) for memory consolidation and subsequent retrieval. Taken together, these first findings are promising, suggesting that haiku can be a paradigmatic material for studying meaning construction during poetry reading.
Increased microsaccade rate in individuals with ADHD traits
Authors: Panagiotidi Maria , Overton Paul , Stafford Tom
Published: February 2021

Microsaccades are involuntary, small, jerk-like eye-movements with high-velocity that are observed during fixation. Abnormal microsaccade rates and characteristics have been observed in a number of psychiatric and developmental disorders. In this study, we examine microsaccade differences in 43 non-clinical participants with high and low levels of ADHD-like traits, assessed with the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS, Kessler, Adler, et al., 2005). A simple sustained attention paradigm, which has been previously shown to elicit microsaccades, was employed. A positive correlation was found between ADHD-like traits and binocular and monocular microsaccade rates. No other differences in microsaccade properties were observed. The relationship between ADHD traits and microsaccades suggests that abnormal oculomotor behaviour is a core deficit in ADHD and could potentially lead to the development of a biomarker for the disorder.
Bonnard´s representation of the perception of substance
Authors: Privitera C. M. , Stark L. W. , Zangemeister W. H.
Published: February 2021

Artists are said to be like neuroscientists able to exploit the capacities of the brain to generate aesthetic experience (Zeki, 2001). Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947) has been recognized as one of the greatest and most enigmatic masters of the 20th century painting. For his understanding of the eye movements, attentional shifts mechanism and the representation in his paintings of the complexity of the physiological process of vision perception, something that he famously referred to as "the transcription of the adventures of the optic nerve", he is considered a revolutionary painter. Our recent eye movements study on Bonnard's paintings evidences a "temporal-extended" mechanism in the control of scanpaths that refers to a progression of the scanpath pattern during repetitive viewings and supports the phenomenon of late emotional response which was one of the artist's artistic and perceptual objective.
Effects of aging on regular and express latencies of vergence
Authors: Yang Qing , Le Thanh-Thuan , Kapoula Zoi
Published: February 2021

Vergence eye movements are frequent in every day life and important for depth perception. Yet, studies of vergence in elderly are rare. We examined convergence and divergence between targets placed along median line at 20, 40 or 150cm. Thirteen elderly (70±11years) and ten young (25±3years) adults participated in the study. The gap paradigm (i.e., the fixed stimulus is extinguished prior to target onset) and the overlap paradigm (the fixed stimulus remains illuminated after target onset) were used to elicit reflexive or voluntary eye movements. Latency of convergence and divergence increased with age in both gap and overlap conditions. Both young subjects and elderly showed shorter latency of vergence under the gap condition than under the overlap condition. In the overlap condition, for elderly only, convergence resulted in longer latencies than divergence. In the gap condition express convergence was rare, while express latencies (80–120ms) were frequent for divergence starting from a near fixation point (at 20cm). The rates of express divergence were similar for young (23%) and elderly (21%). These results were in line with prior studies of saccades and indicated different aging effects on regular and express latencies.
Sampling rate influences saccade detection in mobile eye tracking of a reading task
Authors: Leube Alexander , Rifai Katharina , Wahl Siegfried
Published: February 2021

The purpose of this study was to compare saccade detection characteristics in two mobile eye trackers with different sampling rates in a natural task. Gaze data of 11 participants were recorded in one 60 Hz and one 120 Hz mobile eye tracker and compared directly to the saccades detected by a 1000 HZ stationary tracker while a reading task was performed. Saccades and fixations were detected using a velocity based algorithm and their properties analyzed. Results showed that there was no significant difference in the number of detected fixations but mean fixation durations differed between the 60 Hz mobile and the stationary eye tracker. The 120 Hz mobile eye tracker showed a significant increase in the detection rate of saccades and an improved estimation of the mean saccade duration, compared to the 60 Hz eye tracker. To conclude, for the detection and analysis of fast eye movements, such as saccades, it is better to use a 120 Hz mobile eye tracker.
Developing Clinically Practical Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Protocols to Improve Saccadic Eye Movement Control
Authors: Chen Po Ling , Machado Liana
Published: February 2021

Recent research indicates that anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied over the frontal eye field (FEF) can be used to improve saccadic eye movement control in healthy young adults. The current research set out to replicate these findings using a clinically practical protocol, to test whether tDCS applied over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) might also afford benefits, and to determine whether benefits extend to older adults, who are known to suffer from saccadic eye movement control deficits. Twenty young and 10 older adults completed two active (FEF and DLPFC) and one sham stimulation session. In an effort to aid clinical translation, the method of positioning the electrodes entailed simple measurements only. No improvements in saccadic performance emerged following anodal tDCS applied over the FEF or DLPFC relative to the sham condition in either age group. In addition, saccadic performance contralateral to the active electrodes showed no evidence of benefits over ipsilateral performance. These negative results question whether the protocol utilized can be applied effectively using only simple measurements to localize the relevant frontal subregion. Future efforts can consider adjusting the tDCS montage that might yield more promising results to improve saccadic eye movement control in older adults.
Interference between smooth pursuit and color working memory
Authors: Yue Shulin , Jin Zhenlan , Fan Chenggui , Zhang Qian , Li Ling
Published: February 2021

Spatial working memory (WM) and spatial attention are closely related, but the relationship between non-spatial WM and spatial attention still remains unclear. The present study aimed to investigate the interaction between color WM and smooth pursuit eye movements. A modified delayed-match-to-sample paradigm (DMS) was applied with 2 or 4 items presented in each visual field. Subjects memorized the colors of items in the cued visual field and smoothly moved eyes towards or away from memorized items during retention interval despite that the colored items were no longer visible. The WM performance decreased with higher load in general. More importantly, the WM performance was better when subjects pursued towards rather than away from the cued visual field. Meanwhile, the pursuit gain decreased with higher load and demonstrated a higher result when pursuing away from the cued visual field. These results indicated that spatial attention, guiding attention to the memorized items, benefits color WM. Therefore, we propose that a competition for attention resources exists between color WM and smooth pursuit eye movements.
The Effect of Real-time Headbox Adjustments on Data Quality
Authors: Blignaut Pieter
Published: February 2021

Following a patent owned by Tobii, the framerate of a CMOS camera can be increased by reducing the size of the recording window so that it fits the eyes with minimum room to spare. The position of the recording window can be dynamically adjusted within the camera sensor area to follow the eyes as the participant moves the head. Since only a portion of the camera sensor data is communicated to the computer and processed, much higher framerates can be achieved with the same CPU and camera.Eye trackers can be expected to present data at a high speed, with good accuracy and precision, small latency and with minimal loss of data while allowing participants to behave as normally as possible. In this study, the effect of headbox adjustments in real-time is investigated with respect to the above-mentioned parameters.It was found that, for the specific camera model and tracking algorithm, one or two headbox adjustments per second, as would normally be the case during recording of human participants, could be tolerated in favour of a higher framerate. The effect of adjustment of the recording window can be reduced by using a larger recording window at the cost of the framerate.
Dynamics of eye movements under time varying stimuli
Authors: Radisavljevic-Gajic Verica
Published: February 2021

In this paper we study the pure-slow and pure-fast dynamics of the disparity convergence of the eye movements second-order linear dynamic mathematical model under time varying stimuli. Performing simulation of the isolated pure-slow and pure-fast dynamics, it has been observed that the pure-fast component corresponding to the eye angular velocity displays abrupt and very fast changes in a very broad range of values. The result obtained is specific for the considered second-order mathematical model that does not include any saturation elements nor time-delay elements. The importance of presented results is in their mathematical simplicity and exactness. More complex mathematical models can be built starting with the presented pure-slow and pure-fast first-order models by appropriately adding saturation and time-delay elements independently to the identified isolated pure-slow and pure-fast first-order models.
How prior experience, cognitive skills and practice are related with eye-hand span and performance in video gaming
Authors: Nivala Markus , Cichy Agnes , Gruber Hans
Published: February 2021

Research has shown that performance in visual domains depends on domain-specific cognitive and perceptual adaptations that result from extensive practice. However, less is known about processes and factors that underpin the acquisition of such adaptations. The present study investigated how prior experience, cognitive skills, task difficulty and practice effect eye-hand span (EHS) and performance in video gaming. Thirty-three participants played a platformer video game in a pre-test/practice/post-test experiment. Eye movements and keypresses were recorded. The results show that a short practice period improved performance but did not increase EHS. Instead, EHS was related to task difficulty. Furthermore, while EHS correlated with initial performance, this effect seemed to diminish after practice. Cognitive skills (concentration endurance, working memory, mental flexibility and executive functioning) predicted performance in some parts of the experiment. The study offers insights into the early development of visual adaptations and performance.
Comparison of the precision of smooth pursuit in humans and head unrestrained monkeys
Authors: Churan Jan , Braun Doris I. , Gegenfurtner Karl R. , Bremmer Frank
Published: February 2021

Direct comparison of results of humans and monkeys is often complicated by differences in experimental conditions. We replicated in head unrestrained macaques experiments of a recent study comparing human directional precision during smooth pursuit eye movements (SPEM) and saccades to moving targets (Braun & Gegenfurtner, 2016). Directional precision of human SPEM follows an exponential decay function reaching optimal values of 1.5°-3° within 300 ms after target motion onset, whereas precision of initial saccades to moving targets is slightly better. As in humans, we found general agreement in the development of directional precision of SPEM over time and in the differences between directional precision of initial saccades and SPEM initiation. However, monkeys showed overall lower precision in SPEM compared to humans. This was most likely due to differences in experimental conditions, such as in the stabilization of the head, which was by a chin and a head rest in human subjects and unrestrained in monkeys.
Eye movement parameters for performance evaluation in projection-based stereoscopic display
Authors: Lin Chiuhsiang Joe , Prasetyo Yogi Tri , Widyaningrum Retno
Published: February 2021

The current study applied Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to analyze the relationship among index of difficulty (ID) and parallax on eye movement time (EMT), fixation duration (FD), time to first fixation (TFF), number of fixation (NF), and eye gaze accuracy (AC) simultaneously. EMT, FD, TFF, NF, and AC were measured in the projection-based stereoscopic display by utilizing Tobii eye tracker system. SEM proved that ID had significant direct effects on EMT, NF, and FD also a significant indirect effect on NF. However, ID was found not a strong predictor for AC. SEM also proved that parallax had significant direct effects on EMT, NF, FD, TFF, and AC. Apart from the direct effect, parallax also had significant indirect effects on NF and AC. Regarding the interrelationship among dependent variables, there were significant indirect effects of FD and TFF on AC. Our results concluded that higher AC was achieved by lowering parallax (at the screen), longer EMT, higher NF, longer FD, and longer TF,
Effects of an active visuomotor steering task on covert attention
Authors: Tuhkanen Samuel , Pekkanen Jami , Lehtonen Esko , Lappi Otto
Published: February 2021

In complex dynamic tasks such as driving it is essential to be aware of potentially important targets in peripheral vision. While eye tracking methods in various driving tasks have provided much information about drivers’ gaze strategies, these methods only inform about overt attention and provide limited grounds to assess hypotheses concerning covert attention. We adapted the Posner cue paradigm to a dynamic steering task in a driving simulator. The participants were instructed to report the presence of peripheral targets while their gaze was fixed to the road. We aimed to see whether and how the active steering task and complex visual stimulus might affect directing covert attention to the visual periphery. In a control condition, the detection task was performed without a visual scene and active steering. Detection performance in bends was better in the control task compared to corresponding performance in the steering task, indicating that active steering and the complex visual scene affected the ability to distribute covert attention. Lower targets were discriminated slower than targets at the level of the fixation circle in both conditions. We did not observe higher discriminability for on-road targets. The results may be accounted for by either bottom-up optic flow biasing of attention, or top-down saccade planning.
Changes in the disparity vergence main sequence after treatment of symptomatic convergence insufficiency in children
Authors: Scheiman Mitchell , Yaramothu Chang , Alvarez Tara L.
Published: February 2021

This study investigates the underlying physiological mechanisms that may lead to improved outcomes for symptomatic convergence insufficiency (CI) patients after 12 weeks of office-based vergence/accommodation therapy (OBVAT) by evaluating the change in the main sequence of vergence and saccadic eye movements. In this prospective trial, 12 participants with symptomatic CI were recruited and treated with 12 weeks of OBVAT. Outcome measures included the objective assessment of the following: peak velocity, time to peak velocity, latency, response amplitude, and clinical changes in the near point of convergence (NPC), positive fusional vergence (PFV) and symptoms via the Convergence Insufficiency Symptom Survey (CISS). Ten of the twelve participants (83%) were categorized as “successful” and two were “improved” based on pre-determined published criteria (CISS, NPC, PFV). There were statistically significant changes in peak velocity, time to peak velocity, and response amplitude for both 4° and 6° symmetrical convergence and divergence eye movements. There was a significant change in the main sequence ratio for convergence post-OBVAT compared to baseline measurements (P=0.007) but not for divergence or saccadic responses. Phasic/step vergence movements adjust the underlying neural control of convergence and are critical within a vision therapy program for CI patients.
Microsaccade generation requires a foveal anchor
Authors: Otero-Millan Jorge , Langston Rachel E , Costela Francisco , Macknik Stephen L , Martinez-Conde Susana
Published: February 2021

Visual scene characteristics have the ability to affect various aspects of saccade and microsaccade dynamics. For example, blank visual scenes are known to elicit diminished saccade and microsaccade production, compared to natural scenes. Similarly, microsaccades are less frequent in the dark. Yet, the extent to which foveal and peripheral visual information contribute to microsaccade production remains unclear: because microsaccade are directed to covert attention locations as per the superior colliculus activation map, it follows that peripheral stimulation could suffice to produce regular microsaccade dynamics, even without foveal stimulation being present. Here we compared the characteristics of microsaccades generated in the presence or absence of foveal and/or peripheral visual stimulation, while human subjects conducted four types of oculomotor tasks (fixation, free-viewing, guided-viewing and fixation during passive viewing). Foveal information was either available, or made unavailable by the presentation of both solid and blurred scotomas. We found foveal stimulation to be critical for microsaccade production, and peripheral stimulation, by itself, to be insufficient to yield microsaccades. Our results indicate that a foveal visual anchor is necessary for microsaccade generation.
Microsaccades distinguish looking from seeing
Authors: Krueger Eva , Schneider Andrea , Sawyer Ben , Chavaillaz Alain , Sonderegger Andreas , Groner Rudolf , Hancock Peter
Published: February 2021

Understanding our visual world requires both looking and seeing. Dissociation of these processes can result in the phenomenon of inattentional blindness or ‘looking without seeing‘. Concomitant errors in applied settings can be serious, and even deadly. Current visual data analysis cannot differentiate between just ‘looking‘ and actual processing of visual information, i.e., ‘seeing‘. Differentiation may be possible through the examination of microsaccades; the involuntary, small-magnitude saccadic eye movements that occur during processed visual fixation. Recent work has suggested that microsaccades are post-attentional biosignals, potentially modulated by task. Specifically, microsaccade rates decrease with increased mental task demand, and increase with growing visual task difficulty. Such findings imply that there are fundamental differences in microsaccadic activity between visual and nonvisual tasks. To evaluate this proposition, we used a high-speed eye tracker to record participants in looking for differences between two images or, doing mental arithmetic, or both tasks in combination. Results showed that microsaccade rate was significantly increased in conditions that require high visual attention, and decreased in conditions that require less visual attention. The results support microsaccadic rate reflecting visual attention, and level of visual information processing. A measure that reflects to what extent and how an operator is processing visual information represents a critical step for the application of sophisticated visual assessment to real world tasks.
Eye movements in developing readers: From basic research to classroom application.
Authors: Spichtig Alexandra , Vorstius Christian , Reilly Ronan , Laubrock Jochen
Published: February 2021

Video stream: https://vimeo.com/362645755
Eye-movement recording has made it possible to achieve a detailed understanding of oculomotor and cognitive behavior during reading and of changes in this behavior across the stages of reading development. Given that many students struggle to attain even basic reading skills, a logical extension of eye-movement research involves its applications in both the diagnostic and instructional areas of reading education. The focus of this symposium is on eye-movement research with potential implications for reading education.
Christian Vorstius will review results from a large-scale longitudinal study that examined the development of spatial parameters in fixation patterns within three cohorts, ranging from elementary to early middle school, discussing an early development window and its potential influences on reading ability and orthography. Ronan Reilly and Xi Fan will present longitudinal data related to developmental changes in reading-related eye movements in Chinese. Their findings are indicative of increasing sensitivity to lexical predictability and sentence coherence. The authors suggest that delays in the emergence of these reading behaviors may signal early an increased risk of reading difficulty.
Jochen Laubrock’s presentation will focus on perceptual span development and explore dimensions of this phenomenon with potential educational implications, such as the modulation of perceptual span in relation to cognitive load, as well as preview effects during oral and silent reading --and while reading comic books.
Eye and head movements while looking at rotated scenes in VR.
Authors: Anderson Nicola C. , Bischof Walter F.
Published: February 2021

Video stream: https://vimeo.com/356859979
Production and  publication of the video stream was sponsored by SCIANS Ltd  http://www.scians.ch/
We examined the extent to which image shape (square vs. circle), image rotation, and image content (landscapes vs. fractal images) influenced eye and head movements. Both the eyes and head were tracked while observers looked at natural scenes in a virtual reality (VR) environment. In line with previous work, we found a horizontal bias in saccade directions, but this was affected by both the image shape and its content. Interestingly, when viewing landscapes (but not fractals), observers rotated their head in line with the image rotation, presumably to make saccades in cardinal, rather than oblique, directions. We discuss our findings in relation to current theories on eye movement control, and how insights from VR might inform traditional eyetracking studies. - Part 2: Observers looked at panoramic, 360 degree scenes using VR goggles while eye and head movements were tracked. Fixations were determined using IDT (Salvucci & Goldberg, 2000) adapted to a spherical coordinate system. We then analyzed a) the spatial distribution of fixations and the distribution of saccade directions, b) the spatial distribution of head positions and the distribution of head movements, and c) the relation between gaze and head movements. We found that, for landscape scenes, gaze and head best fit the allocentric frame defined by the scene horizon, especially when taking head tilt (i.e., head rotation around the view axis) into account. For fractal scenes, which are isotropic on average, the bias toward a body-centric frame gaze is weak for gaze and strong for the head. Furthermore, our data show that eye and head movements are closely linked in space and time in stereotypical ways, with volitional eye movements predominantly leading the head. We discuss our results in terms of models of visual exploratory behavior in panoramic scenes, both in virtual and real environments.
From lab-based studies to eye-tracking in virtual and real worlds: conceptual and methodological problems and solutions.
Authors: Hooge Ignace T.C. , Hessels Roy S. , Niehorster Diederick C. , Diaz Gabriel J. , Duchowski Andrew T. , Pelz Jeff B.
Published: February 2021

Video stream: https://vimeo.com/357473408
Wearable mobile eye trackers have great potential as they allow the measurement of eye movements during daily activities such as driving, navigating the world and doing groceries. Although mobile eye trackers have been around for some time, developing and operating these eye trackers was generally a highly technical affair. As such, mobile eye-tracking research was not feasible for most labs. Nowadays, many mobile eye trackers are available from eye-tracking manufacturers (e.g. Tobii, Pupil labs, SMI, Ergoneers) and various implementations in virtual/augmented reality have recently been released.The wide availability has caused the number of publications using a mobile eye tracker to increase quickly. Mobile eye tracking is now applied in vision science, educational science, developmental psychology, marketing research (using virtual and real supermarkets), clinical psychology, usability, architecture, medicine, and more. Yet, transitioning from lab-based studies where eye trackers are fixed to the world to studies where eye trackers are fixed to the head presents researchers with a number of problems. These problems range from the conceptual frameworks used in world-fixed and head-fixed eye tracking and how they relate to each other, to the lack of data quality comparisons and field tests of the different mobile eye trackers and how the gaze signal can be classified or mapped to the visual stimulus. Such problems need to be addressed in order to understand how world-fixed and head-fixed eye-tracking research can be compared and to understand the full potential and limits of what mobile eye-tracking can deliver. In this symposium, we bring together presenting researchers from five different institutions (Lund University, Utrecht University, Clemson University, Birkbeck University of London and Rochester Institute of Technology) addressing problems and innovative solutions across the entire breadth of mobile eye-tracking research.
Hooge, presenting Hessels et al. paper, focus on the definitions of fixations and saccades held by researchers in the eyemovement field and argue how they need to be clarified in order to allow comparisons between world-fixed and head-fixed eye-tracking research. - Diaz et al. introduce machine-learning techniques for classifying the gaze signal in mobile eye-tracking contexts where head and body are unrestrained. Niehorster et al. compare data quality of mobile eye trackers during natural behavior and discuss the application range of these eye trackers. Duchowski et al. introduce a method for automatically mapping gaze to faces using computer vision techniques. Pelz et al. employ state-of-the-art techniques to map fixations to objects of interest in the scene video and align grasp and eye-movement data in the same reference frame to investigate the guidance of eye movements during manual interaction.
Teachers' gaze over space and time in a real-world classroom
Authors: Smidekova Zuzana , Janik Miroslav , Minarikova Eva , Holmqvist Kenneth
Published: February 2021

Reading students’ faces and their body language, checking their worksheets, and keeping eye contact is a key trait of teacher competence. The new technology of mobile eye-tracking provides researchers with possibilities to explore teaching from the viewpoint of teacher gaze, but also introduces many new method questions. This study had the primary aim to investigate teachers´ attention distribution over space: the number and durations of several types of their gazes, and how their gaze depends on the factors of students´ gender, achievement, and position in the classroom. Results show that teacher gaze was distributed unevenly across both space and time. Teachers looked at the most-watched students 3-8 times more often than at the least-watched ones. Students sitting in the first row and the middle section received significantly more gaze than those sitting outside this zone. All three teachers made more single gaze visits - looking at the students but making no eye contact - than mutual gazes or student material gazes. The three teachers’ gaze distribution also varied substantially from lesson to lesson. Our results are important for understanding teacher behavior in real classrooms, but also point to the relevance of appropriate method design in future classroom studies with eye-tracking.
The impact of uninformative parafoveal masks on L1 and late L2 speakers
Authors: Fernandez Leigh Breakell , Scheepers Christoph , Allen Shanley E.M.
Published: February 2021

Much reading research has found that informative parafoveal masks lead to a reading benefit for native speakers (see, Schotter et al., 2012). However, little reading research has tested the impact of uninformative parafoveal masks during reading. Additionally, parafoveal processing research is primarily restricted to native speakers. In the current study we manipulated the type of uninformative preview using a gaze contingent boundary paradigm with a group of L1 English speakers and a group of late L2 English speakers (L1 German). We were interested in how different types of uninformative masks impact on parafoveal processing, whether L1 and L2 speakers are similarly impacted, and whether they are sensitive to parafoveally viewed language-specific sub-lexical orthographic information. We manipulated six types of uninformative masks to test these objectives: an Identical, English pseudo-word, German pseudo-word, illegal string of letters, series of X’s, and a blank mask. We found that X masks affect reading the most with slight graded differences across the other masks, L1 and L2 speakers are impacted similarly, and neither group is sensitive to sub-lexical orthographic information. Overall these data show that not all previews are equal, and research should be aware of the way uninformative masks affect reading behavior. Additionally, we hope that future research starts to approach models of eye-movement behavior during reading from not only a monolingual but also from a multilingual perspective.
Semantic Override of Low-level Features in Image Viewing – Both Initially and Overall
Authors: Nyström Marcus , Holmqvist Kenneth
Published: February 2021

Guidance of eye-movements in image viewing is believed to be controlled by stimulus driven factors as well as viewer dependent higher level factors such as task and memory. It is currently debated what proportions these factors contribute to gaze guidance, and also how they vary over time after image onset. Overall, the unanimity regarding these issues is surprisingly low and there are results supporting both types of factors as being dominant in eye-movement control under certain conditions. We investigate how low, and high level factors inﬂuence eye guidance by manipulating contrast statistics on images from three different semantic categories and measure how this affects fixation selection. Our results show that the degree to which contrast manipulations affect fixation selection heavily depends on an image’s semantic content, and how this content is distributed over the image. Over the three image categories, we found no systematic differences between contrast and edge density at fixated location compared to control locations, neither during the initial fixation nor over the whole time course of viewing. These results suggest that cognitive factors easily can override low-level factors in fixation selection, even when the viewing task is neutral.
About the global effect and the critical role of retinal eccentricity: Implications for eye movements in reading
Authors: Vitu Françoise
Published: February 2021

In the present paper, I review evidence for the universality of the global effect, i.e. the general tendency to move the eyes towards the centre of gravity of the peripheral configu-ration, and show that the effect is strongly constrained by the retinal location of the stimuli. First, stimuli that are displayed in a central foveal region of a 1-1.5° radius fail to deviate the eyes in a centre-of-gravity manner; this is referred to as the foveal dead zone. Second, the stimuli that are too eccentric relative to the saccade target and/or the main stimulation site are filtered out. These limitations reflect physiological constraints and the dynamics of the patterns of activity in a visual saliency map. They form the basis for a low-level centre-of-gravity type account of eye guidance in natural perceptual tasks such as reading.
Correction of Saccade-Induced Midline Errors in Responses to Pure Disparity Vergence Stimuli.
Authors: Semmlow John L. , Chen Yung-Fu , Granger-Donnetti Bérangère , Alvarez Tara L.
Published: February 2021

Purely symmetrical vergence stimuli aligned along the midline (cyclopean axis) require only a pure vergence response. Yet, in most responses saccades are observed and these saccades must either produce an error in the desired midline response or correct an error produced by asymmetry in the vergence response. A previous study (Semmlow, et al. 2008) has shown that the first saccade to appear in a response to a pure vergence stimulus usually increased the deviation from the midline, although all subjects (N = 12) had some responses where the initial saccade corrected a vergence induced midline error. This study focuses on those responses where the initial saccade produces an increased midline deviation and the resultant compensation that ultimately brings the eyes to the correct binocular position. This correction is accomplished by a higher level compensatory mechanism that uses offsetting asymmetrical vergence and/or corrective saccades. While responses consist of a mixture of the two compensatory mechanisms, the dominant mechanism is subject-dependent. Since fixation errors are quite small (minutes of arc), some feedback controlled physiological process involving smooth eye movements, and possibly saccades, must move the eyes to reduce binocular error to fixation disparity levels.
The effect of a temporary absence of target velocity information on visual tracking
Authors: Cisarik Patricia M. , Kasthurirangan Sanjeev , Jr. Frank E. Visco , Bedell Harold E. , Stevenson Scott B. , Raghunandan Avesh
Published: February 2021

Experiments with the Rashbass ‘step-ramp’ paradigm have revealed that the initial catchup saccade that occurs near pursuit onset uses target velocity as well as position information in its programming. Information about both position and motion also influences smooth pursuit. To investigate the timing of velocity sampling near the initiation of saccades and smooth pursuit, we analyzed the eye movements made in nine ‘step-ramp’ conditions, produced by combining –2, 0 and +2 deg steps with –8, 0 and +8 deg/s ramps. Each trial had either no temporal gap or a 50-ms gap during which the laser target was extinguished, beginning 25, 50, 75 or 100 ms after the step. Six subjects repeated each of the resulting 45 conditions 25 times. With no temporal gap, saccades were larger in the step-ramp-away’ than the ‘step-only’ condition, confirming that saccade programming incorporates ramp velocity information. A temporal gap had no effect on the accuracy of saccades on ‘step-only’ trials, but often caused undershoots in ‘step-ramp’ trials. A 50-ms gap within the first 100 ms also increased the latency of the initial saccade. Although initial pursuit velocity was unaffected by a temporal gap, a gap that started at 25 ms reliably delayed pursuit onset for ramp motion of the target toward the fovea. Later gaps had a minimal effect on initial pursuit latency. The similar timing of the temporal gaps in target motion information that affect the initiation of saccades and pursuit provides further behavioral evidence that the two types of eye movements share pre-motor neural mechanisms.
Abstracts of the 16th European Conference on Eye Movements 2011
Authors: Vitu Françoise , Castet Eric , Goffart Laurent
Published: February 2021

This document contains all abstracts of the 16th European Conference on Eye Movements, August 21-25 2011 in Marseille, France.

It was a real honour and a great pleasure to welcome more than 500 delegates to Marseille for the 16th edition of the European Conference on Eye Movements. The series of ECEM conferences started in 1981 under the auspices of Rudolf Groner in Bern. This year, we therefore celebrated the 30th Anniversary of ECEM. For this special occasion we had as a special guest Rudolf Groner, and honoured Alan Kennedy and George W. McConkie for their contributions to our field in two special symposia. We had the pleasure of listening to six keynote lectures given respectively by Patrick Cavanagh, Ralf Engbert, Edward L. Keller, Eileen Kowler, Rich Krauzlis and Gordon E. Legge. These exceptional scientific events were nicely complemented by all submissions, which made the ECEM 2011 program a very rich and interdisciplinary endeavor, comprising 19 symposia, 243 talks and 287 poster presentations, and a total of about 550 participants.

The conference opened with an address given by Denis Bertin, vice president of the scientific committee of the University of Provence, and representing Jean-Paul Caverni, President of the University of Provence. It closed with Rudolf Groner’s address and the awarding of the best poster contributions by students and postdocs.

This year, three posters were awarded; the first prize was offered by SR Research, the second prize was given by the Cognitive Science Society, and the third, the Rudolf Groner Prize, was offered by the ECEM organizing committee. The conference was held on the St Charles campus of the University of Provence, and to mark the return of ECEM in Southern Europe, many events including lunches, coffee breaks, aperitifs and poster sessions took place outside under the trees of our campus. Luckily, the sun was with us for the five days of the conference !

Françoise, Stéphanie, Stéphane, Eric & Laurent
The influence of emotional picture thematic content on exploratory eye movements
Authors: Carniglia Elena , Caputi Marcella , Manfredi Valentina , Zambarbieri Daniela , Pessa Eliano
Published: February 2021

In picture viewing, emotional vs. neutral stimuli could play a different role in eye movement parameters and in the spatial progression of the scanpath. The aim of this paper is to investigate exploratory behaviour of normal subjects during the vision of emotional vs. non-emotional stimuli, by considering to what extent the thematic content (animate vs. inanimate) is likely to influence the observer’s eye movements. Sixty-five subjects’ eye movement patterns were measured while looking to emotional (pleasant and unpleasant) and neutral pictures depicting animate or inanimate contents. Results showed that the number of fixations and the gaze duration were greater for emotional pictures than for neutral ones, and animate pictures were fixated longer than inanimate ones. Both emotional and animate pictures may affect eye movements and constitute privileged stimuli of adaptive behavioural tendencies.
Evidence Supporting Open-Loop Control During Early Vergence
Authors: Semmlow John , Alvarez Tara , Granger-Donetti Bérangère
Published: February 2021

Disparity vergence eye movements were analyzed to determine if the early component of this response operates under open-loop, or preprogrammed, control. The analysis compares ratios of peak velocity to response amplitude (i.e., main sequence ratios) for the isolated early component and for the entire disparity vergence response. The stimuli were limited a 4 deg step changes in vergence so that any differences in movement dynamics (i.e., peak velocities) were due only to internal noise. Nine binocularly normal subjects were studied. A significant correlation between peak velocity and amplitude was observed during the early portion of the movement (p < 0.002), but not for the overall vergence response. Results support the widely held, but unproven assumption that the early component of symmetrical vergence is guided by open-loop, or preprogrammed, control processes while the overall response is influenced by internal and/or external feedback.