Pupillometry as a measure of cognitive effort

With the growing popularity of the study of eye movements, the availability of data regarding pupil size has also increased. The size of the pupil is influenced by several factors such as lighting conditions, the distance of the observed object, or psychosensory load. This work is focused on changes in pupil size in response to cognitive load. It is a literature review systemizing research on pupillary reactions. The first part of the thesis describes the neural pathways of pupillary reactions. The second part of the thesis presents particular factors causing changes in pupil size and their function. The third part focuses on different approaches in the methodology of cognitive-pupillometry experiments, which are currently not unified. In the empirical section, the use of pupillometry is demonstrated by performing a short experiment monitoring pupil dilation under different cognitive loads, specifically when calculating arithmetic problems. Key words pupil, pupillary reaction, cognitive load, pupillometr