Beyond a fixation on fixations: What can we learn from eye-movement behaviour?

Eye-tracking technology enables us to record eye-movements. For many, this offers the opportunity to estimate what an observed user is looking at, and how long for. In other words, periods when the eye is not moving. In my talk, I will explain how properties and patterns of eye-movements can reveal aspects of the observed individual's cognitive state. More specifically, I will draw on the results of human behaviour studies from my lab to explain how saccade reaction times, saccadic sequences, and dwell-transitions can discriminate for one's goals, scene complexity, and capacity for executive planning. These studies were conducted across the domains of eye-movement coordination, natural scene description, and executive functions for flight control. In doing so, I will explain how we applied relevant cognitive models to guide our analyses of eye-movement behavior. To summarize, this talk will demonstrate that eye-movements reflect the executive planning and decision-making processes that underlie one's motivation and capacity to perform a task effectively