Eye tracking can provide several measures that may correlate with cognitive effort during tasks such as translation. For your study on translators' cognitive effort when translating neologisms, you should consider the following eye-tracking metrics:
Fixation Duration:
- Description: The length of time the gaze rests on a single point.
- Relevance: Longer fixations may indicate difficulty in processing the neologism, suggesting higher cognitive effort.
- Calculation: Average the durations of all fixations on the neologism or related areas of interest (AOIs) during the translation task.
Fixation Count:
- Description: The number of fixations within a specific AOI.
- Relevance: A higher number of fixations can indicate increased difficulty in comprehension or decision-making.
- Calculation: Count the total number of fixations on the neologism or related AOIs.
Saccade Length:
- Description: The distance of rapid eye movements between fixations.
- Relevance: Shorter saccades may occur when translators are searching for information or re-reading, indicating higher cognitive effort.
- Calculation: Measure the average length of saccades when encountering neologisms versus known words.
Pupil Dilation:
- Description: The change in pupil size, which can be an indicator of cognitive load.
- Relevance: Increased pupil size is often associated with increased cognitive effort.
- Calculation: Monitor and average the pupil size changes when the translator encounters neologisms compared to baseline measures.
Regression Count:
- Description: The number of times the eyes move back to previously read text.
- Relevance: A high number of regressions may suggest difficulty in understanding or integrating information.
- Calculation: Count how many times the translator's gaze returns to the neologism or previously read segments.
Reading Time:
- Description: The total time spent reading the text containing neologisms.
- Relevance: Prolonged reading time may be a sign of increased cognitive effort to understand unfamiliar terms.
- Calculation: Measure the total time from the first fixation on a sentence containing a neologism until the translator moves on.
Blink Rate:
- Description: The frequency of blinks during the translation process.
- Relevance: A change in blink rate can indicate changes in cognitive load, with both increases and decreases being potentially significant.
- Calculation: Count the number of blinks over time and compare it during the translation of neologisms versus normal text.
Gaze Path and Transitions:
- Description: The pattern and sequence of eye movements across different AOIs.
- Relevance: Frequent transitions and erratic gaze paths can indicate search behavior and difficulty in processing.
- Calculation: Track and map the sequence of gaze movements and transition frequencies between AOIs.
When interpreting these metrics, it's important to compare the data gathered during the translation of neologisms with control conditions, such as the translation of familiar words or the translator's baseline measurements. The differences between these conditions can help to isolate the cognitive effort specifically associated with translating neologisms. Statistical analyses can then be performed to assess the significance of these differences. Always ensure that the eye-tracking data are cleaned (e.g., remove artifacts such as blinks or outliers) before analysis.