Cognitive Effort Measures Driven by Fixation Induced Retinal Flow in Visual Scanning Behavior during Virtual Driving

Runlin Zhang, Qing Xu, Simon Parkinson, Klaus Schoeffmann, Yu Chen

Abstract: In this paper, we consider the problem of visual scanning mechanism underpinning sensorimotor tasks, such as walking and driving, in dynamic environments. We exploit eye tracking data for offering two new cognitive effort measures in visual scanning behavior of virtual driving. By utilizing the retinal flow induced by fixation, two novel measures of cognitive effort are proposed through the importance of grids in the viewing plane and the concept of information quantity, respectively. Psychophysical studies are conducted to reveal the effectiveness of the two proposed measures. Both these two cognitive effort measures have shown their significant correlation with pupil size change. Our results suggest that the quantitative exploitation of eye tracking data provides an effective approach for the evaluation of sensorimotor activities.