## 4 Experimental Design
### Research Results Analysis
#### 4.3.3 Weight  
The relationship pathways between fixation regions exhibit a clear hierarchical structure, as shown in Figure 13c. In the quantitative analysis of interregional connection strength, the most densely connected regions are the distant mountains (Region 0) and the mountain settlement (Region 4), with a total of 513 gaze transitions. The viewer's gaze also frequently shifted between the foreground riverside (Region 3) and the riverside boatman (Region 1), accumulating 240 gaze transitions. A slightly weaker but still significant level of visual interaction was observed between the mountain settlement (Region 4) and the riverside boatman (Region 1) with 303 gaze transitions, as well as between the mountain settlement (Region 4) and the foreground riverside (Region 3) with 232 transitions. In contrast, the lake surface with scattered boats (Region 2) exhibited the weakest visual connections to other regions, with transition frequencies ranging between only 115 and 155 times. This distinct hierarchical structure of relationships highlights the varying degrees of visual guidance exerted by different areas of the painting.  
4.3.4 Time: Integrative Analysis of Visual Structure and Verbal Utterances in the Temporal Dimension  
This section adopts a time-series perspective to examine the evolving rhythm of gaze behavior during the viewing process and to assess whether the timing of verbal utterances coincides with dynamic adjustments in gaze patterns. While these utterances do not explicitly reference specific visual objects, some appear before or after transitions in gaze, concentrated fixations, or changes in exploration rhythm. As such, in this section, utterances are treated not as explanations of visual behavior but as temporal markers indicating potential turning points or phase shifts within the viewing process. To illustrate the interplay between verbal expression and gaze behavior over time, eight paired segments of utterance and gaze data were selected for in-depth analysis. These segments were chosen based on two criteria: (1) the utterance had already been categorized using a grounded-theory-based semantic classification framework; and (2) the surrounding eye-tracking data exhibited notable gaze transitions, focused fixations, or structural changes in gaze behavior. The semantic categories used followed the framework of [PERSON] et al. [37], comprising three relevant types for this study--evaluative judgment, spatial description, and object identification--excluding graphic-textual interaction, which was not applicable to the image used. It is important to note that some analytic units consist of adjacent utterances grouped together, as they collectively indicate dynamic changes in gaze behavior. Thus, the eight analytic segments encompass 18 utterances in total, rather than a one-to-one mapping with the originally recorded 20 utterances. Utterances excluded from this analysis primarily occurred during periods of micro-adjustments within a single region and lacked significant gaze transitions. Additionally, this section centers exclusively on the temporal alignment between utterances and gaze; it does not attempt to infer semantic-gaze correspondences or propose causal relationships between language and visual attention. The objective here is to explore how the appearance of verbal utterances temporally intersects with shifts in gaze structure, thereby offering auxiliary insight into the staged evolution of the viewing process.  
As summarized in Table 4, the eight analytical phases were selected based on both semantic categories and observable gaze transitions. This table provides an overview of the utterances included in each phase, their temporal boundaries, semantic classifications,and a brief description of the corresponding gaze patterns. This summary aims to improve the transparency and reproducibility of the phase segmentation process.