Wandering Eyes: Using Gaze-Tracking Method to Capture Eye Fixations in Unfamiliar Healthcare Environments

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to investigate the elements of wayfinding in indoor complex healthcare environments. Background: The study replicates Ghamari and Pati’s 2018 study to identify the environmental attributes that attract eye fixation during wayfinding by objectively tracking eye movements and fixation as healthy subjects navigate through a complex, unfamiliar indoor healthcare setting. The study addressed what do people look at while navigating in unfamiliar healthcare environments? What are the relative time periods of eye fixations on different visual environmental elements of the healthcare-designed environments? And what role do visual environmental attributes in healthcare facilities, such as configuration, color, art, directories, maps, furniture, and so on, play during the wayfinding process. Method: Twenty-four adults in different genders and various age groups participated in this study and navigated five routes with different degrees of difficulty. The sequence of the destinations in this study was randomized. The data were collected by tracking gaze fixations while human subjects navigated an indoor complex healthcare environment. Results: The findings show that identifying signs (29.1%), informative signs (20.8%), and architectural features (11.3%) constituted the most frequent elements attracting gaze, substantially more than the other classes of information. Four types of signage (identifying signs, informative signs, directional, and safety/regulatory signs) were accounted for 62.3% of the total gaze fixation time. Conclusions: The comparison of the ordered list based on frequencies and time of eye fixations on various elements developed in Ghamari and Pati’s study shows a vast degree of similarities.

Eye movements reveal spatiotemporal dynamics of visually-informed planning in navigation

“…But in sequential decision making tasks such as navigation, there is added uncertainty about the task-contingent causal structure ( model ) of the environment ( Kaplan and Friston, 2018 ; Mattar and Lengyel, 2022 ). Common paradigms for goal-oriented navigation occlude large portions of the environment from view, usually in the interest of distinguishing model-based strategies from conditioned responses ( Smittenaar et al, 2013 ; Simon and Daw, 2011 ; de Cothi et al, 2020 ) or allow very restricted fields of view where eye movements have limited potential for sampling information ( Javadi et al, 2017 ; Ghamari and Golshany, 2021 ). Occlusions eliminate the possibility of gathering information about the structure of the environment using active sensing.…”

Eye movements reveal spatiotemporal dynamics of visually-informed planning in navigation

“…But in sequential decision making tasks such as navigation, there is added uncertainty about the task-contingent causal structure (model) of the environment [2,6]. Common paradigms for goal-oriented navigation occlude large portions of the environment from view, usually in the interest of distinguishing model-based strategies from conditioned responses [50][51][52] or allow very restricted fields of view where eye movements have limited potential for sampling information [39,53]. Occlusions eliminate the possibility of gathering information about the structure of the environment using active sensing.…”

The Influence of Spatial Cognitive Model Based on Eye Tracking on Wayfinding Behavior in Underground Parking Lots

“…Some scholars have used eye-tracking technology to explore the function of wayfinding signage in university libraries, demonstrating that information signage has the best visual navigation capabilities and is the most popular among route strategy users [36]. In indoor complex healthcare environments, identification signs, informational signs and architectural features are the most important wayfinding elements that attract the eyes [37]. In a radial shopping environment, customers obtain effective wayfinding information in the form of orientation signs and spatial structure cues as the main information perception process [38].…”