An Eyetracking Category Learning Model

人们并不把世界上的物体看作是完全新奇的实体，而是把它们看作是一种类型、种类或范畴的例子。动物被认为是特定物种的一员，病人被视为特定疾病的病例，等等。人们对物体进行分类的过程是认知科学的核心问题，目前的分类理论都认为跟踪一个人对物体的特征和特性的注意力是理解潜在过程的关键。 但直到最近，研究人员还很难将注意力作为分类理论的证据来源来衡量。在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Dr. Alderder的目标是通过跟踪人们在学习新的视觉类别时的眼球运动来推进分类理论。 当注意力在视觉对象或场景上漫游时，眼球运动已经被证明密切跟随注意力的焦点。 Dr. Alderder将使用眼球运动来衡量物体的特征和特性，这些特征和特性用于学习新的类别，并最终用于熟练地对物体进行分类。 本研究所获得的知识可能为更好地理解注意缺陷引起的认知功能障碍提供基础。 更一般地说，这项研究可能会告知教育实践的背景下，学习成绩取决于学生如何分类一个给定的问题来解决。

People perceive objects in the world not as completely novel entities, but rather, as examples of a type, kind, or category. An animal is recognized as a member of a particular species, a medical patient is treated as a case of a particular disease, and so on. The processes by which people categorize objects is a central question in the cognitive sciences, and current theories of categorization all agree that tracking a person's attention to features and characteristics of objects is key to understanding the underlying processes. But until recently, it was very difficult for researchers to measure attention as a source of evidence for theories of categorization.With support of the National Science Foundation, Dr. Rehder aims to advance theories of categorization by tracking people's eye movements as they learn new visual categories. Eye movements have been shown to closely follow the focus of attention as it roams over a visual object or scene. Dr. Rehder will use eye movements to gauge the features and characteristics of objects that are used to learn new categories, and eventually used to categorize objects fluently in skilled performance. The knowledge to be gained by this research may provide a basis for better understanding the cognitive malfunctions that occur with attentional deficits. More generally, this research may inform educational practice in contexts where academic performance depends on how the student categorizes a given problem to be solved.