eye tracking research

WHAT IS IT?:

The MIT Computational Psycholinguistics Lab’s Eye-tracking Group conducts research on the way humans process language through tracking their eye motions when reading. The developed experiment determines language proficiency by tracking the gaze of native English and ESL test takers. We use the Eye-link 1000 camera that records gaze patterns of test takers as they read free-form English sentences and subsequent comprehension questions.

Through these experiments, the group seeks to work towards two main goals: using eye tracking as a language proficiency test, as well as determining a user’s native language from the tracked patterns.

ROLE:

My role was to operate the eye-tracker and run a series of eye-tracking experiments for data collection. I also prepared the experimental content for the studies.

I developed the testing material by taking articles from sources like Wall Street Journal and modifying the passages for three levels of proficiency. Based off these readings, I wrote test questions, adhering to a ruleset that was modeled after standardized exams.

Through this role, I was also able to give a presentation on this paper. For this presentation, I researched how humans acquire abstract knowledge.

SKILLS:

• experimental design

• data collection

• technical presentation