Cognitive analysis of experts’ and novices’ concept mapping processes: An eye tracking study

Effects of Exercise Habits and Gender on Sports e-Learning Behavior: Evidence from an Eye-Tracking Study

Background/Objective

In the post-epidemic era, an increasing number of individuals were accustomed to learning sports and physical activity knowledge online for fitness and health demands. However, most previous studies have examined the influence of e-learning materials and resources on learners and have neglected intrinsic factors such as experience and physiological characteristics. Therefore, we conducted a study to investigate the effect of exercise habits and gender on sports e-learning behavior via eye-tracking technology.

Methods

We recruited a sample of 60 undergraduate students (mean age = 19.6) from a university in Nanjing, China. They were randomly assigned into 4 groups based on 2 genders × 2 exercise habits. Their gaze behavior was collected by an eye-tracking device during the experiment. The cognitive Load Test and Learning Effect Test were conducted at the end of the individual experiment.

Results

(1) Compared to the non-exercise habit group, the exercise habit group had a higher fixation count (P<0.05), a shorter average fixation duration (P<0.05), a smaller average pupil diameter (P<0.05), and a lower subjective cognitive load (P<0.05) and better learning outcome (P<0.05). (2) Male participants showed a greater tendency to process information from the video area of interest (AOIs), and had lower subjective cognitive load (P < 0.05) and better learning outcomes (P < 0.05). (3) There was no interaction effect between exercise habits and gender for any of the indicators (P > 0.05).

Conclusion

Our results indicate that exercise habits effectively enhance sports e-learning outcomes and reduce cognitive load. The exercise habits group showed significant improvements in fixation counts, average fixation duration, and average pupil diameter. Furthermore, male subjects exhibited superior learning outcomes, experienced lower cognitive load, and demonstrated greater attentiveness to dynamic visual information. These conclusions are expected to improve sports e-learning success and address educational inequality.

Neuroscientific Methods for Exploring User Perceptions While Dealing With Mobile Advertising: A Novel and Integrated Approach

Display and native ads represent two of the most widely used digital advertising formats employed by advertisers that aim to grab the attention of online users. In recent years, the native format has become very popular because it relies on deceptive features that make harder the recognition of its advertising nature, reducing avoiding behaviors such as the banner blindness phenomena, traditionally associated to display advertising, and so increasing its advertising effectiveness. The present study, based on a forefront research protocol specifically designed for the advertising research on smartphone devices, aims to investigate through neurophysiological and self-reported measures, the perception of display and native ads placed within article webpages, and to assess the efficacy of an integrated approach. Eye-tracking results showed higher visual attention and longer viewing time associated with native advertisements in comparison to traditional display advertisements, confirming and extending evidence provided by previous research. Despite a significantly higher rate of self-reported advertising intent was detected for articles containing display ads when compared to articles containing native ads, no differences have been found while performing the same comparison for the neurophysiological measures of emotional involvement and approaching motivation of for the self-reported measures of pleasantness and annoyance. Such findings along with the employment of an innovative research protocol, contribute to providing further cues to the current debate related to the effectiveness of two of the most widely used digital advertising formats.

Mind Maps: Processed as Intuitively as Thought? Investigating Late Elementary Students’ Eye-Tracked Visual Behavior Patterns In-Depth

In this study, 44 late elementary students’ visual behavior patterns when reading mind maps were investigated, more particularly, the intuitive processing nature of their visual characteristics, reading sequence and presentation mode (i.e., mind map before or after text). Eye-tracked data were investigated by means of static early attention and dynamic educational process mining (EPM) analysis and combined with learning performance and retrospective interview data. All students seem to struggle with the map’s radial structure during initial reading. Also, the picture’s position in the map diverts students from consecutively reading interconnected branches. EPM analyses revealed different reading patterns in proceeding reading behavior. Students receiving a text first, seem to grasp the radial structure slightly more and show higher information integration attempts. They also attained higher free recall and coherence scores. The study concludes with instructional design principles for urgently needed explicit visual literacy instruction in elementary grades.

Eye tracking for work-related visual search: a cognitive task analysis

Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) is an important methodology in ergonomics for studying workplaces and work patterns. Using eye tracking as a CTA methodology, this article explores visual search patterns in complex work environments and situations. It presents a simulated crime scene case study that applies eye tracking-based experiments in foraging and sense-making loops to elicit and represent knowledge on expert versus novice search patterns for complex work. The case probes the visual search task of preliminarily evaluating and documenting potential crime scene evidence. The experimental protocol relies on the ASL Mobile Eye and the analyses of experimental data include preliminary inspections of live-viewing data on eye-movements, precedence matrices detailing scan paths, and gaze charts that illustrate participants' attention based on fixation counts and durations. In line with the CTA methodology, the article uses concept maps to represent knowledge derived from different phases of the study. The article also discusses the research implications and methodologically reflects on the case study. Practitioner summary: This study offers valuable insights for work design. The use of eye tracking as a CTA methodology offers potentials for translating visual search tasks into defined visual search concepts for complex work environments and situations. The ability to model visual attention is valuable for work designs that improve complex work performance, reduce work stress, and promote work satisfaction.

Co-Creative Learning in Innovation Laboratories Using Lego Serious Play Workshops

Although innovation laboratories offer creative and distinct physical spaces for mediating and directing innovation processes, research on their applicability for co-creative learning during serious play, particularly through Lego Serious Play (LSP) workshops remains limited. Previous studies suggest that serious play workshops tend to focus on scenarios, problem solving and reflective processes, with limited considerations for joint co-creation and learning potentials within innovation laboratories. Motivated by the creative prospects of metaphoric representations and shared stories, this study explores the possibilities of harnessing LSP for co-creative learning in innovation laboratories. This case study draws theoretical insights and practical relevance from a co-creative learning workshop involving three learning scenarios within a Middle Eastern and emerging economy context. Findings from the workshop show variability in representations, interactions and reflections, shaping possibilities for co-creative learning in innovation laboratories. Representations focus on systems, solutions and problems during fragmented, model-supported, model-mediated and integrated interactions that underpin a range of instance-based, variance-based, convergence-based and divergence-based reflections. These insights contribute to co-creation literature that views value creation as an amalgamation of open, collaborative and user innovation. The study concludes by discussing its theoretical implications, practical applications, and methodological limitations, which serve as the basis for future research directions.

Distinguishing Intermediate and Novice Surgeons by Eye Movements

Surgical skill-level assessment is key to collecting the required feedback and adapting the educational programs accordingly. Currently, these assessments for the minimal invasive surgery programs are primarily based on subjective methods, and there is no consensus on skill level classifications. One of the most detailed of these classifications categorize skill levels as beginner, novice, intermediate, sub-expert, and expert. To properly integrate skill assessment into minimal invasive surgical education programs and provide skill-based training alternatives, it is necessary to classify the skill levels in as detailed a way as possible and identify the differences between all skill levels in an objective manner. Yet, despite the existence of very encouraging results in the literature, most of the studies have been conducted to better understand the differences between novice and expert surgical skill levels leaving out the other crucial skill levels between them. Additionally, there are very limited studies by considering the eye-movement behaviors of surgical residents. To this end, the present study attempted to distinguish novice- and intermediate-level surgical residents based on their eye movements. The eye-movement data was recorded from 23 volunteer surgical residents while they were performing four computer-based simulated surgical tasks under different hand conditions. The data was analyzed using logistic regression to estimate the skill levels of both groups. The best results of the estimation revealing a 91.3% recognition rate of predicting novice and intermediate surgical residents on one scenario were selected from four under the dominant hand condition. These results show that the eye-movements can be potentially used to identify surgeons with intermediate and novice skills. However, the results also indicate that the order in which the scenarios are provided, and the design of the scenario, the tasks, and their appropriateness with the skill levels of the participants are all critical factors to be considered in improving the estimation ratio, and hence require thorough assessment for future research.

Fostering clinical reasoning in physiotherapy: comparing the effects of concept map study and concept map completion after example study in novice and advanced learners

BACKGROUND

Health profession learners can foster clinical reasoning by studying worked examples presenting fully worked out solutions to a clinical problem. It is possible to improve the learning effect of these worked examples by combining them with other learning activities based on concept maps. This study investigated which combinaison of activities, worked examples study with concept map completion or worked examples study with concept map study, fosters more meaningful learning of intervention knowledge in physiotherapy students. Moreover, this study compared the learning effects of these learning activity combinations between novice and advanced learners.

METHODS

Sixty-one second-year physiotherapy students participated in the study which included a pre-test phase, a 130-min guided-learning phase and a four-week self-study phase. During the guided and self-study learning sessions, participants had to study three written worked examples presenting the clinical reasoning for selecting electrotherapeutic currents to treat patients with motor deficits. After each example, participants engaged in either concept map completion or concept map study depending on which learning condition they were randomly allocated to. Students participated in an immediate post-test at the end of the guided-learning phase and a delayed post-test at the end of the self-study phase. Post-tests assessed the understanding of principles governing the domain of knowledge to be learned (conceptual knowledge) and the ability to solve new problems that have similar (i.e., near transfer) or different (i.e., far transfer) solution rationales as problems previously studied in the examples.

RESULTS

Learners engaged in concept map completion outperformed those engaged in concept map study on near transfer (p = .010) and far transfer (p < .001) performance. There was a significant interaction effect of learners' prior ability and learning condition on conceptual knowledge but not on near and far transfer performance.

CONCLUSIONS

Worked examples study combined with concept map completion led to greater transfer performance than worked examples study combined with concept map study for both novice and advanced learners. Concept map completion might give learners better insight into what they have and have not yet learned, allowing them to focus on those aspects during subsequent example study.