The Eyes Have It: Exploring the Connection Between Domain-Knowledge and Perception
Sonali Aatrai, Sandhya Gayatri Prabhala, Saurabh Sharma, Rajlakshmi Guha · 2024
Leveraging prior domain-knowledge significantly impacts perception, and this study explores whether the prior domain-knowledge has any relation with the eye movements. We explore oculometrics of 95 graduate students from Architecture, Social Science, and Biology backgrounds, categorized by their domain-knowledge levels. Students were given unbiased (neutral), domain-biased (architecture and biology) tasks. Oculometrics of the students were captured during the tasks and were analyzed to determine if prior domain-knowledge affected eye movements. Results showed no significant difference between the three groups in the unbiased tasks. However, significant differences emerged in biased tasks between groups with and without domain-knowledge. Signature markers, such as peak saccadic velocity and mean pupil diameter, along with time-correlated parameters of total scanning duration, total fixation duration, total saccadic duration, and fixation count, were found to differentiate novices from those with prior domain-knowledge. The study highlights the importance of oculometrics to distinguish between novices and those with prior domain-knowledge.