Patterns of eye movement in matching-to-sample tasks

Abstract

The present study evaluated whether during a matching-to-sample procedure (MTS), the time spent observing stimuli is related to the establishment of selection or rejection controlling relationships in human participants. It also evaluated whether different response topographies (i.e., participants using the keyboard or mouse) would influence the duration of eye fixations. Ten college students participated. The procedure established conditional relationships among six sets of abstract stimuli. Five participants selected the comparison stimuli using a computer mouse and five used a keyboard. An eye-scan device recorded eye movements throughout the training procedure. After participants completed training, probes verified whether the conditional relationships learned were controlled by selection (e.g., if A1, select B1), by rejection (e.g., if A1, reject B2), or both. All participants displayed a similar pattern of stimuli observation. Time spent observing the sample stimulus (e.g., A1) was longer than observing the comparison stimuli (e.g., B1 and B2). Time spent observing S+ (positive stimuli; e.g., B1) was longer than observing S- (negative stimuli; e.g., B2). Duration of eye fixation was not related to selection or rejection controlling relationships, but different response topographies appeared to modulate the amount of time spent observing stimuli.