All Stories

Professors Leslie Cameron and Arryn Robbins, from the Department of Psychological Science, traveled to Alicante, Spain, last month to present research at the 20th European Conference on Eye Movements. Their presentation, entitled “Similarities and differences in eye movements between professors and students during graph reading,” was carried out in collaboration with student researcher and Psychological Science Departmental Fellow, Holly Pelnar.

The project, which examined participants’ eye movements as they attempted to make sense of graphical depictions of data, was developed as part of Prof. Cameron’s Wagner Teaching Fellowship. In June, Prof. Cameron presented components of this project at the European Conference of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Bilbao, Spain, and she will present them to the Carthage community at a Teaching Commons event on Wednesday, Oct. 2. The researchers found notable differences between the visual scan patterns of faculty and students when viewing graphs, and these observed differences could inform the way that we teach students to consume graphical information

This project was made possible through a major research instrumentation grant from the National Science Foundation that allowed the Department of Psychological Science to purchase an Eyelink Duo eye-tracking system. The state of the art system measures the reflection of near-infrared light of the participant’s eye to infer where they are looking on a computer monitor. The system has been a boon for undergraduate research in the Department of Psychological Science.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:

Anthony Barnhart abarnhart@carthage.edu