Reading Scanpaths

Research Questions: Our aims are on the one hand to find differences in users’ information behavior reading Wikipedia articles and on the other to evaluate different methods commonly used to compare scanpaths.

Approach: We conducted eye-tracking experiments and exported scanpaths from raw data to identify gaze patterns of different user groups, considering the parameters pre- and post-knowledge, learning style and subject of study.

Method: We applied string distance measures and cluster analysis to investigate scanpath sequences, fixation times and the distribution of the visual attention.

Results: Despite encountering difficulties in comparing scanpaths, there are indications that the users’ knowledge influences their gaze patterns.