MRI: Acquisition of an Infrared Eye Tracker to Study the Emergence, Use, Loss and Reacquisition of Communication Skills

MRI：获取红外眼动仪来研究沟通技能的出现、使用、丧失和重新获得

• 批准号: 1337120
• 负责人: Rhiannon Luyster
• 金额: $ 4.16万
• 依托单位: Emerson College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2016-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1337120&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: MRI; Acquisition; Infrared; Eye; Tracker

Using a Major Instrumentation award from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Rhiannon Luyster and three co-investigators at Emerson College will purchase a Remote Eye Tracking (RED) System from Sensomotoric Instruments. By using infrared light, the RED system allows users to record eye movements and fixations to images or videos; this technology has been used across a wide range of disciplines to learn about what aspects of visual images attract a viewer's attention. The four collaborating investigators are faculty in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and plan to use this advanced technology to study the emergence, use, loss and reacquisition of communication skills across the lifespan. One study explores the role of visual attention to speaking faces in early childhood language learning and language deficits. A second study addresses how children visually scan the facial expressions of peers with and without autism and how these visual scan patterns relate to the perception of awkwardness in the social communication attempts of children with autism. A final set of projects studies how adults with aphasia attend to verbal and non-verbal communication channels when trying to understand messages and how potential communication partners of adults with aphasia rely on verbal and non-verbal channels to understand people with aphasia. Together, this program of research has the potential to reveal new insights into the role of communication across the lifespan, from young children to adults. The goal is to answer core questions about the value of communicative cues, and how variations in the use of communicative cues might be associated with deficits, or, conversely, support healthy development. This equipment will have broad benefits for faculty scholarship, student learning and community engagement at Emerson College. First, in addition to the four faculty associated with the present proposal, several faculty members throughout the college have expressed an interest in incorporating eye-tracking technology into their own work, covering topics from cross-cultural consumer behavior to the role of media in journalism. Second, the equipment will be made available to undergraduate and masters students from any college department, many of which (Marketing, for instance) produce graduates who will encounter eye-tracking technology in the professional world. Finally, the acquisition of this equipment will strengthen current Emerson College outreach programs, including an existing partnership with the Boston-area Science Club for Girls (connecting college students in the sciences with elementary and middle-school aged girls from underrepresented groups), the Boston Museum of Science, and the Cambridge Science Festival, where our students present pieces on science and science education to a large and diverse audience. Finally, the School of Communication at Emerson recently began recording a series of podcasts to showcase the research programs and innovations of its faculty. These podcasts are aired in a variety of contexts, including on WERS - the Emerson-owned radio station - thus disseminating information about Emerson's eye-tracking research, recent findings and the value of science in our society.

Rhiannon Luyster 博士和艾默生学院的三名联合研究人员将利用美国国家科学基金会颁发的重大仪器奖，从 Sensomotoric Instruments 购买远程眼动追踪 (RED) 系统。 通过使用红外光，RED 系统允许用户记录眼球运动和对图像或视频的注视；这项技术已被广泛应用于各个学科，以了解视觉图像的哪些方面吸引了观众的注意力。 四位合作研究人员是传播科学与疾病系的教员，他们计划利用这项先进技术来研究人一生中沟通技能的出现、使用、丧失和重新获得。 一项研究探讨了视觉注意力对说话面孔的关注在幼儿语言学习和语言缺陷中的作用。 第二项研究探讨了儿童如何通过视觉扫描患有自闭症和未患有自闭症的同龄人的面部表情，以及这些视觉扫描模式与自闭症儿童社交沟通尝试中的尴尬感有何关系。 最后一组项目研究失语症成年人在尝试理解信息时如何参与言语和非言语沟通渠道，以及失语症成年人的潜在沟通伙伴如何依靠言语和非言语渠道来理解失语症患者。总之，该研究项目有可能揭示从幼儿到成人的整个生命周期中沟通作用的新见解。 目标是回答有关交际线索价值的核心问题，以及交际线索使用的变化如何与缺陷相关，或者相反，如何支持健康发展。 该设备将为艾默生学院的教师奖学金、学生学习和社区参与带来广泛的好处。 首先，除了与本提案相关的四位教职人员之外，整个学院的几位教职员工都表示有兴趣将眼球追踪技术纳入自己的工作中，涵盖从跨文化消费者行为到媒体在新闻业中的作用等主题。 其次，这些设备将提供给任何大学系的本科生和硕士生，其中许多系（例如营销系）培养的毕业生将在专业领域遇到眼动追踪技术。 最后，购买该设备将加强艾默生学院现有的推广计划，包括与波士顿地区女子科学俱乐部（将科学专业的大学生与来自弱势群体的中小学女孩联系起来）、波士顿科学博物馆和剑桥科学节的现有合作伙伴关系，在剑桥科学节上，我们的学生向大量不同的观众展示有关科学和科学教育的作品。 最后，艾默生传播学院最近开始录制一系列播客，以展示其教师的研究项目和创新。 这些播客在各种环境下播出，包括在艾默生旗下的 WERS 广播电台上播出，从而传播有关艾默生眼动追踪研究、最新发现以及科学在我们社会中的价值的信息。