Abstract:
Eye-tracking has been found increasingly useful in interdisciplinary academic research and commercial practice. Recent developments in eye-tracking have been impressive in reducing the cost of eye-tracking systems. In this paper, we produced a cost-effective workstation for usability studies by combining cutting-edge, eye-tracking technology with off-the shelf software. The workstation cost ~1/10th of its nearest comparable, commercial equivalent and was validated against prior research findings using equivalent methodologies. This paper is unique in its examination of the effects of gender, the effect of prior knowledge on memory, and use of Mayer’s principles to identify video segments of high cognitive load and simultaneous eye-tracking activity. The findings will be of interest to instructional designers, video producers and lecture recording archivists.