Predictive Eye Movements Characterize Active, Not Passive, Participation in the Collective Embodied Learning of a Scientific Concept

Abstract

Embodied pedagogy maintains that teaching and learning abstract concepts can benefit significantly from integrating bodily movements into the process. However, the dynamics of such an integration, as well as its dependency on active participation, are not known. Here, we examined the dynamics of visual perception loops during embodied training by tracking eye movements during a session of the collective embodied learning of a concept in physics—angular velocity. Embodied learning was accomplished by the subjects, forming a line that rotated around a central object, in this case, a bottle. We tracked the gaze resulting from the eye and head movements in 12 subjects, who both actively participated in the collective embodied exercise and passively watched it. The tracking data of 7 of these 12 subjects passed our tracking reliability criteria in all the trials and are reported here. During active learning, the learners tended to look ahead of the rotating line (by 35.18 ± 14.82 degrees). In contrast, while passively watching others performing the task, the learners tended to look directly at the line. Interestingly, while the learners were performing the collective exercise, they were unaware of looking ahead of the rotating line. We concluded that the closed-loop perceptual dynamics differed between the active and passive modes, and discussed possible consequences of the observed differences with respect to embodied pedagogy.