Extended tasks elicit complex eye movement patterns

Abstract

Visual perception is an inherently complex task, yet the bulk of studies in the past were undertaken with subjects performing relatively simple tasks under reduced laboratory conditions. In the research reported here, we examined subjects' oculomotor performance as they performed two complex, extended tasks. In the first task, subjects built a model rocket from a kit. In the second task, a wearable eyetracker was used to monitor subjects as they walked to a restroom, washed their hands, and returned to the starting point. For the purposes of analysis, both tasks can be broken down into smaller sub-tasks that are performed in sequence. Differences in eye movement patterns and high-level strategies were observed in the model building and handwashing tasks. Fixation durations recorded in the model building tasks were significantly shorter than those reported in simpler tasks. Performance in the hand-washing task revealed look -ahead eye movements made to objects well in advance of a subject's interaction with the object. Often occurring in the middle of another task, they provide overlapping temporal information about the environment, providing a mechanism to produce our conscious visual experience.