Studies have demonstrated that task-evoked pupillary responses (TEPRs) can be adopted to measure the examinee's cognitive load. This study compared three approaches for the measurement of TEPRs, mean pupil diameter, mean pupil dilation, and mean percentage of pupil dilation, to determine the best-fit measuring method. The valid participants of…

This study used eye-movement tracking to investigate how students engage with the learning process of reading science articles with or without hands-on manipulation of a pulley system and their influences on learning outcomes. This experiment used a 2 (reading easy or difficult articles) × 2 (with or without hands-on manipulation) between-subject…

Psychophysiological responses have been studied as objective indicators for measuring a learner's cognitive load. Previous studies have correlated pupil dilation or fixation length with increased cognitive load. Our aims were to confirm whether these findings could be applied in a general learning context and to verify the additivity hypothesis of…

Linear functions are an essential part of school and university education. Nevertheless, this topic is challenging for many students--especially in STEM topics. In this article, we contribute to the understanding of learning difficulties in the context of mathematical and physical problems. Here, we present the results of an eye-tracking study on…

When characterizing students' item-solving strategies, methods such as interviews and think-aloud protocols are often used. However, these measures provide limited information about sub-or preconscious signals and cognitive processes that also affect students' item-solving strategies and abilities. A growing number of researchers in chemical…

Background: Problem-solving is a multidimensional and dynamic process that requires and interlinks cognitive, metacognitive, and affective dimensions of learning. However, current approaches practiced in computing education research (CER) are not sufficient to capture information beyond the basic programming process data (i.e., IDE-log data).…

Spatial thinking is a crucial aspect of geography education with which all citizens should be equipped. This study employs eye-tracking technology to research strategies (their repertoire, distribution, effectiveness, and adaptiveness) used by upper-secondary students when analyzing spatial patterns with thematic maps. The results show that…

Multiple external representations (MERs) play an important role in the learning field of mathematics. Whereas the cognitive theory of multimedia learning and the integrative text and picture comprehension model assume that the heterogeneous combination of symbolic and analogous representations fosters learning; the design, functions, and tasks…

Learning involves a substantial amount of cognitive, social and emotional states. Therefore, recognizing and understanding these states in the context of learning is key in designing informed interventions and addressing the needs of the individual student to provide personalized education. In this paper, we explore the automatic detection of…

Despite decades of research on the close link between eye movements and human cognitive processes, the exact nature of the link between eye movements and deliberative thinking in problem-solving remains unknown. Thus, this study explored the critical eye-movement indicators of deliberative thinking and investigated whether visual behaviors could…

Typical physics textbook problems often include supportive diagrams that visualize the physical situation although the potential benefits of providing such diagrams is not yet fully established. We used eye tracking to explore the role of supportive diagrams in problem solving. Including a supportive diagram with the text of the problem improved…

The main purpose of this study was to examine possible gender differences in how junior high school students integrate printed texts and diagrams while solving science problems. We proposed the response style hypothesis and the spatial working memory hypothesis to explain possible gender differences in the integration process. Eye-tracking…

The present study investigated (a) whether the perceived cognitive load was different when geometry problems with various levels of configuration comprehension were solved and (b) whether eye movements in comprehending geometry problems showed sources of cognitive loads. In the first investigation, three characteristics of geometry configurations…

Spatial ability tasks appear on many intelligence and aptitude tests. Although the construct validity of spatial ability tests has often been studied through traditional correlational methods, such as factor analysis, less is known about the cognitive processes involved in solving test items. This study examines the cognitive processes involved in…

This dissertation presents several studies designed to probe the mental representations that physics experts and novices form when interacting with typical instructional materials, such as diagrams and problem statements. By using recognition tasks and a change detection task, the mental representations of experts and novices are studied in a more…