Abstract
The eyes, often called the window to our minds, reveal the focus of spatial attention and are therefore a powerful research tool for the study of spatial processing and spatially related higher cognitive functions. The aim of this paper is to highlight the potential of eye movement analysis in the domain of numerical cognition, to review several relevant findings, and to provide an outlook for future research.
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Notes
As state of the art, eye movements are measured by video- or infrared-based eye-tracking devices capturing the pupil and/or corneal reflection of the eye or alternatively by electrooculography. After calibration, these systems allow for an accurate estimation of participants’ gaze position on a screen. Gaze position is recorded with a sampling rate of at least 25 Hz; a higher sampling rate (e.g., 500 or 1000 Hz) is mandatory when saccade parameters, such as velocity, are analyzed.
The papers presented in this article can be found by searching databases (e.g., Web of Knowledge, PubMed, Google Scholar) with the keywords “eye movements” and “numerical cognition.” Note that, given the limited space, this article is not a comprehensive review about eye movements and number processing. References were selected based on the author’s impression that these papers highlight the advantage of eye tracking in numerical cognition research.
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Acknowledgments
This research was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (P2BEP1_152104). I thank Martin Fischer for helpful comments on the manuscript.
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Hartmann, M. Numbers in the eye of the beholder: What do eye movements reveal about numerical cognition?. Cogn Process 16 (Suppl 1), 245–248 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-015-0716-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10339-015-0716-7