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

利用美国国家科学基金会的重大仪器奖，Rhiannon Luyster博士和艾默生学院的三名合作研究人员将从Sensomotoric Instruments购买远程眼动跟踪（RED）系统。 通过使用红外光，RED系统允许用户记录眼睛运动和对图像或视频的注视;这项技术已被广泛用于各种学科，以了解视觉图像的哪些方面吸引了观众的注意力。 四名合作研究人员是通信科学和疾病系的教师，他们计划使用这种先进的技术来研究整个生命周期中沟通技能的出现，使用，丧失和重新获得。 一项研究探讨了视觉注意力在幼儿语言学习和语言缺陷中的作用。 第二项研究讨论了儿童如何视觉扫描的面部表情的同龄人和没有自闭症，以及这些视觉扫描模式如何与自闭症儿童的社会沟通尝试的尴尬的感知。 最后一组项目研究失语症成人在试图理解信息时如何注意语言和非语言沟通渠道，以及失语症成人的潜在沟通伙伴如何依靠语言和非语言渠道来理解失语症患者。总之，这项研究计划有可能揭示从幼儿到成年人的整个生命周期中沟通作用的新见解。 我们的目标是回答核心问题的沟通线索的价值，以及如何在使用沟通线索的变化可能与赤字，或相反，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名教师外，整个学院的几名教师都表示有兴趣将眼动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中的作用等主题。 其次，该设备将提供给任何大学部门的本科生和硕士生，其中许多部门（例如市场营销）将培养毕业生，他们将在专业领域遇到眼动追踪技术。 最后，购买这些设备将加强目前艾默生学院的推广计划，包括与波士顿地区的女孩科学俱乐部现有的合作伙伴关系（将科学专业的大学生与代表性不足的小学和中学年龄的女孩联系起来）、波士顿科学博物馆和剑桥科学节，在那里，我们的学生向大量不同的观众展示科学和科学教育。 最后，艾默生传播学院最近开始录制一系列播客，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WERS -爱默生拥有的广播电台-从而传播有关爱默生的眼动追踪研究，最新发现和科学在我们社会中的价值的信息。

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.