Authors : Léger, Charland, Sénécal, Cyr This paper aims to investigate the predictive property of pupil dilation in an IT-related task. Previous work in the field of cognitive pupillometry has established that pupil size is associated with cognitive load. We conducted a within-subject experiment with 22 children aged between 7 and 9. For the hard questions, visit duration, pupil size and its quadratic effect were significant predictors. We discuss the potential of using this unobtrusive approach for neuro-adaptive and auto-adaptive applications.

1. Predicting properties
of cognitive pupillometry
in human computer interaction
A preliminary investigation
Pierre-Majorique Léger,
Patrick Charland, Sylvain Sénécal
and Stéphane Cyr
June 13th 2017, Gmunden, Austria Gmunden Retreat on NeuroIS 2017

2. © Copyright Tech3Lab 2017

3. © Copyright Léger (2017)
Research objective:
Investigate the
predictive property
of pupil dilation in
an IT-related task

4. © Copyright Léger (2017)
Research context:
Mathematics
learning on tablets

5. 2 x 3 = ?
easy
14 x 17 = ?
hard

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Methodology
▪▪ 22 children aged between 7 and 9 (60% male)
▪▪ Tobii x60 oculometer to measure and record
the participants’ pupil dilation
▪▪ 2nd
grade arithmetic questions
6QUESTIONS
BREAK
6QUESTIONS
BREAK
6QUESTIONS
BREAK
6QUESTIONS
BREAK
6QUESTIONS
BREAK

7. © Copyright Tech3Lab 2017© copyright Tech3Lab (2017)
Experimenal stimuli
In each bloc
of 6 questions :
3 CHOICES - EASY
3 CHOICES - HARD 4 CHOICES - HARD 4 CHOICES - HARD
3 CHOICES - EASY 3 CHOICES - EASY
HMH Go Math App (iPad)
3 EASY
3 hard

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Eye-tracking
analysis
18
Right answer AOI

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Results HARD & EASY HARD only EASY only
Estimate Pr > |t| Estimate Pr > |t| Estimate Pr > |t|
Intercept 9.38 0.312 73.28 0.111 9.26 0.343
Square -0.40 0.617 0.00 . -0.56 0.490
Horizontal -1.03 0.015 0.00 . -1.18 0.010
Hard 73.10 0.272
Answer position -0.02 0.931 -0.39 0.379 0.08 0.732
Pupil size -2.76 0.523 -38.04 0.099 -2.57 0.572
Visit duration -1.88 <.0001 -1.10 0.049 -2.29 <.0001
Hard*Pupil -39.79 0.247
Pupil*Pupil 0.31 0.541 5.11 0.088 0.29 0.589
Hard*Pupil* 3.38 3.47 3.24 3.27
Pupil 5.36 0.224

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Results
Predicted probability
of having correct answers
0.7
0.75
0.8
0.85
0.9
0.95
1
3 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 4 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5 5.2
Pr(Correct)
Pupil size
HARD & EASY
Hard Only
EASY only
HARD & EASY HARD only EASY only

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Msi’s GT72s Tobii laptop from
www.engadget.com/2016/02/08/msi-tobii-eye-tracking-laptop
Conclusion
▪▪ Pupil dilation at the moment
of fixation on the right answer
can contribute to predicting
the extent to which the child
is investing sufficient cogni-
tive resources to successfully
solve the problem
▪▪ It is very likely that eye
tracking will become a main-
stream input device on many
eye tracking

12. Thank you!