Can Eye Movements Reveal Visual Preference?

This research investigates visual information preferences through a questionnaire, performance on reasoning problems and eye movement analysis. A questionnaire was administered to 140 college students. The results showed interesting differences by field, gender, and visual preference. Two extreme groups of respondents, six male and six female, were recruited from a pool of 28 respondents matching the criteria of being either more visual than verbal or more verbal than visual. Participants were tested in spatial ability and working memory capacity. They completed 10 reasoning problems while their eye movements were tracked to examine any correlation between their stated preference for verbal or visual information presentation and their actual visual navigation during the task. Visual navigation and performance on problems with and without an optional diagram were compared within-subjects. Within subject and between-group differences in the usage of screen elements as well as field and gender interactions were indicated.