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Steffan A, Zimmer L, Arias-Trejo N, Bohn M, Dal Ben R, Flores-Coronado MA, Franchin L, Garbisch I, Wiesmann CG, Hamlin JK, Havron N, Hay JF, Hermansen TK, Jakobsen KV, Kalinke S, Ko ES, Kulke L, Mayor J, Meristo M, Moreau D, Mun S, Prein J, Rakoczy H, Rothmaler K, Oliveira DS, Simpson EA, Sirois S, Smith ES, Strid K, Tebbe AL, Thiele M, Yuen F, Schuwerk T. Validation of an open source, remote web-based eye-tracking method (WebGazer) for research in early childhood. Infancy 2024; 29:31-55. [PMID: 37850726 PMCID: PMC10841511 DOI: 10.1111/infa.12564] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2023] [Revised: 09/25/2023] [Accepted: 09/30/2023] [Indexed: 10/19/2023]
Abstract
Measuring eye movements remotely via the participant's webcam promises to be an attractive methodological addition to in-person eye-tracking in the lab. However, there is a lack of systematic research comparing remote web-based eye-tracking with in-lab eye-tracking in young children. We report a multi-lab study that compared these two measures in an anticipatory looking task with toddlers using WebGazer.js and jsPsych. Results of our remotely tested sample of 18-27-month-old toddlers (N = 125) revealed that web-based eye-tracking successfully captured goal-based action predictions, although the proportion of the goal-directed anticipatory looking was lower compared to the in-lab sample (N = 70). As expected, attrition rate was substantially higher in the web-based (42%) than the in-lab sample (10%). Excluding trials based on visual inspection of the match of time-locked gaze coordinates and the participant's webcam video overlayed on the stimuli was an important preprocessing step to reduce noise in the data. We discuss the use of this remote web-based method in comparison with other current methodological innovations. Our study demonstrates that remote web-based eye-tracking can be a useful tool for testing toddlers, facilitating recruitment of larger and more diverse samples; a caveat to consider is the larger drop-out rate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrian Steffan
- Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
| | - Lucie Zimmer
- Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
| | | | - Manuel Bohn
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
- Institute of Psychology, Leuphana University Lüneburg
| | | | | | - Laura Franchin
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento
| | - Isa Garbisch
- Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Göttingen
| | - Charlotte Grosse Wiesmann
- Research Group Milestones of Early Cognitive Development, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
| | - J. Kiley Hamlin
- Department of Psychology, The University of British Columbia
| | - Naomi Havron
- School of Psychological Sciences & Center for the Study of Child Development, University of Haifa
| | | | | | | | - Steven Kalinke
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
| | - Eon-Suk Ko
- Department of English Language and Literature, Chosun University
| | - Louisa Kulke
- Developmental Psychology with Educational Psychology, University of Bremen
| | | | | | - David Moreau
- School of Psychology and Centre for Brain Research, University of Auckland
| | - Seongmin Mun
- Department of English Language and Literature, Chosun University
| | - Julia Prein
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
| | - Hannes Rakoczy
- Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Göttingen
| | - Katrin Rothmaler
- Research Group Milestones of Early Cognitive Development, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
| | | | | | - Sylvain Sirois
- Department of Psychology, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
| | | | - Karin Strid
- Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg
| | - Anna-Lena Tebbe
- Research Group Milestones of Early Cognitive Development, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
| | - Maleen Thiele
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
| | - Francis Yuen
- Department of Psychology, The University of British Columbia
| | - Tobias Schuwerk
- Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
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