Eye Fixations Can Save the World: a Critical Evaluation and a Comparison Between Eye Fixations and Other Information Processing Methodologies

Eye fixations are described and evaluated as a type of process tracing data. Several examples illustrate their use, in both laboratory and consumer settings. This method is compared with four alternatives: chronometric analysis, information display boards, input-output analysis, and verbal protocols. Each method is evaluated on seven performance attributes ranging from validity to equipment cost. The resulting ratings are summarized in a single table. Each method is seen to have unique advantages, so that no one method dominates and no one method should be shunned. The use of joint methodologies is strongly advocated. Eye fixations and verbal protocols are especially complementary methods. INTRODUCTION The phenomenological base of the information processing paradigm is the sequence of cognitive events that occur between stimulus and response. The ascension of this paradigm in consumer research has shifted the theoretical concern from states to processes and thc empirical focus from the output of a process to data that can identify the process itself. To identify the sequence of events that constitute information processing, new methodologies have been developed and old ones elaborated. The goal of this paper is to describe one of these methodologies, the recording of eye fixations, and to compare it to the most popular alternative techniques. PROCESS TRACING DATA The available methodologies can be classified as process tracing or otherwise. All process tracing techniques rely on intermediate responses to provide evidence of ongoing cognitive activity. These responses occur during the performance of the task, prior to the availability of the task's output. Process tracing methodologies include the recording of eye fixations, verbal protocols, and information display board techniques. Input-output analysis and chronometric analysis are examples of methodologies that do not rely on a trace of the process. The intermediate responses that constitute the process trace can be either naturally occurring behaviors, like eye fixations, or they can result from additional instructions, like verbal protocols. There are many possibilities in both categories. For example, natural overt behaviors include the use of external memory, such as writing intermediate computations for later retrieval. Instructed behaviors include, besides verbal protocols, the category of subgoal markers. For example, when choosing from several brands, consumers can be required to mark each brand as it is eliminated. These overt eliminations provide a trace of the progress of the choice task. The potential range of process tracing observations is very large. Only a few of these possible data collection techniques are now in use in any of the behavioral sciences. EYE FIXATIONS For humans the most efficient means of obtaining information from the environment is through eye fixations. Fixation points are located very Member Login