The prospect of gaze manipulation technology in decision-making research: Altering decision-making

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1042.2022.01794

Abstract

Abstract:

The eye-tracking technique has been widely used in behavioural decision-making research owing to its advantages: 1) does not interfere with the decision-making process, 2) objectively collects information and 3) provides accurate and rich process data. To reveal the causality between eye movement and decision making, gaze manipulation could be utilised to examine whether shifting visual attention can alter choice behaviour. Gaze manipulation is classified into two types: exogenous manipulation and gaze-contingent manipulation. The two types of gaze manipulation have the same goals but have different characteristics, thus typically limiting their use for different research areas.

Researchers can use exogenous manipulations, including spatial cueing, visual salience and exposure time to enforce participants’ bias towards attending to a particular stimulus since the initial stage of decision making and to alter their choice finally. Fixation count and fixation duration are two common indexes used for exogenous manipulation. One of the limitations of exogenous manipulation is participants’ possible susceptibility to the demand effect. Participants might infer that the stimulus which presents for longer or brighter is the one they are supposed to choose. Designing the framework of exogenous manipulation experiment is easy, and its conclusion has profound significance in our daily life. Therefore, exogenous manipulation can be used to explore which marketing methods can effectively promote customer purchasing and how to improve the effectiveness of advertising design in consumer behaviour research.

Gaze-contingent manipulation is an experimental paradigm that interrupts decision makers’ decision processes on the basis of their gaze behaviour. In this paradigm, participants’ gaze is monitored and information relating to their fixation duration in a trial is used to trigger the decision prompt and remind participants to indicate their choice. Last fixation and fixation duration are two common manipulation indexes in such research. This paradigm overcomes the negative impact on the demand effect because researchers need not change the stimuli. However, participants’ eye movements may occasionally fail to trigger the decision prompt which might then generate timed-out trials. Gaze-contingent manipulation has been widely used in consumption choice, intertemporal choice, risky choice, moral choice and cognitive choice, among others, to explore the causal link between eye movement and decision making and to test and compare different decision models on the basis of the decision-making process.

Gaze manipulation study has crucial theoretical and practical significance. On the one hand, examining the causal link between eye movement and decision making may help test and compare different decision-making models to provide process evidence that will support the hypotheses of decision-making models. On the other hand, gaze manipulation can alter decision-makers’ choices on the condition that researchers need not change the value of the choice and interfere with the decision-making process. Thus, it can provide ideas to improve decision making from the perspective of information processing.

To improve the gaze manipulation experiment and cater for practical needs, we give three suggestions to advance gaze manipulation study. Firstly, future research should fully consider the differences in individual preference and choice strategy to reduce the number of timed-out trials. Before the experiment, researchers should test individual preference and choice strategy differences under different parameters and set unique stimuli for each participant. Secondly, future research should integrate gaze manipulation with computational modelling or other methods to enrich the manipulation indexes. By computational modelling, researchers can determine key indexes with high explanatory power for outcome and improve the effectiveness of gaze manipulation. By machine learning, researchers can remove the redundancy from massive data and effectively and accurately determine manipulation indexes. Thirdly, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, future research should extend the research field to human resource management and provide suggestions for the changing work style.

Key words: gaze manipulation technology, exogenous manipulation, gaze-contingent manipulation, choice preference, causal link

CLC Number:

LIN Jiao-Min, LI Ai-Mei, ZHOU Ya-Ran, HE Jun-Hong, ZHOU Lei. The prospect of gaze manipulation technology in decision-making research: Altering decision-making[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2022, 30(8): 1794-1803.

Figures/Tables 1

References 63

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操纵类别	具体方法	原理	主要操纵的眼动指标	主要研究领域	参考文献
外源性眼动操纵	外部线索	通过运用外部线索引导实验者注视目标选项	注视点数量	消费决策	Vriens et al., 2020
	物理特征	通过改变选项的物理属性：如显著性(亮度、透明度、颜色等)、标签、尺寸等, 引导实验者注视目标选项	注视点数量	消费决策	Peschel et al., 2019; Zuschke, 2020
	呈现时长	通过延长选项的呈现时间引导实验者注视目标选项	注视时长	认知决策	Shimojo et al., 2003; Nittono & Wada, 2009
				消费决策	Armel et al., 2008
				跨期决策	Fisher, 2021
注视追随操纵	末次注视	当实验者的末次注视位于目标选项时, 中断眼动过程	末次注视点	消费决策	Liu et al., 2020
				认知决策	Morii & Sakagami, 2015
				道德决策	Ghaffari & Fiedler, 2018
	注视时长	当实验者注视选项(维度)达到一定时长时, 中断眼动过程	注视时长	跨期决策	Fisher, 2021; Liu et al., 2021
				风险决策	Sui et al., 2020
				认知决策	亓立东等, 2021; Newell & Le Pelley, 2018; Tavares et al., 2017
				道德决策	Pärnamets et al., 2015

操纵类别	具体方法	原理	主要操纵的眼动指标	主要研究领域	参考文献
外源性眼动操纵	外部线索	通过运用外部线索引导实验者注视目标选项	注视点数量	消费决策	Vriens et al., 2020
	物理特征	通过改变选项的物理属性：如显著性(亮度、透明度、颜色等)、标签、尺寸等, 引导实验者注视目标选项	注视点数量	消费决策	Peschel et al., 2019; Zuschke, 2020
	呈现时长	通过延长选项的呈现时间引导实验者注视目标选项	注视时长	认知决策	Shimojo et al., 2003; Nittono & Wada, 2009
				消费决策	Armel et al., 2008
				跨期决策	Fisher, 2021
注视追随操纵	末次注视	当实验者的末次注视位于目标选项时, 中断眼动过程	末次注视点	消费决策	Liu et al., 2020
				认知决策	Morii & Sakagami, 2015
				道德决策	Ghaffari & Fiedler, 2018
	注视时长	当实验者注视选项(维度)达到一定时长时, 中断眼动过程	注视时长	跨期决策	Fisher, 2021; Liu et al., 2021
				风险决策	Sui et al., 2020
				认知决策	亓立东等, 2021; Newell & Le Pelley, 2018; Tavares et al., 2017
				道德决策	Pärnamets et al., 2015