Project overview
Recent research has shown that where people look affects how they feel. Technological advances have reached the point where we can now investigate how and where children look. Student eye movements is therefore the focus of this study.
Eye-tracking should be used because of biases in where people look when affected by issues of wellbeing: these are known as gaze biases. Specifically, with increasing issues of wellbeing, people look more at negative (Armstrong & Olatunji, 2012; e.g., words, Peckham, McHugh & Otto, 2010) and threatening material (Mathews, Ridgeway & Williamson, 1996) as well as material that matches their own mental health (Eizenman et al., 2003)—especially when they need to think about information in greater detail (Mogg & Bradley, 2005).
The way people look (or gaze) is important because it reflects how they think (or cognitive biases, e.g., Foulsham et al., 2012). To demonstrate, young people with lower levels of wellbeing not only look more at things that remind them of vulnerability but they also interpret things more in terms of vulnerability (Platt, Waters, Schulte-Koerne, Engelmann & Salemink, 2017), showing a close link between where people look (gaze biases) and how they think (or cognitive biases). In fact, so far, attentional research suggests that the mind affected by wellbeing struggles to switch off from negative information (Donaldson, Lam & Mathews, 2007).
Accordingly, this project seeks to investigate process-level experiences of mental health in the classroom during school-based learning, with a focus on eye movement patterns.
Eye-tracking should be used because of biases in where people look when affected by issues of wellbeing: these are known as gaze biases. Specifically, with increasing issues of wellbeing, people look more at negative (Armstrong & Olatunji, 2012; e.g., words, Peckham, McHugh & Otto, 2010) and threatening material (Mathews, Ridgeway & Williamson, 1996) as well as material that matches their own mental health (Eizenman et al., 2003)—especially when they need to think about information in greater detail (Mogg & Bradley, 2005).
The way people look (or gaze) is important because it reflects how they think (or cognitive biases, e.g., Foulsham et al., 2012). To demonstrate, young people with lower levels of wellbeing not only look more at things that remind them of vulnerability but they also interpret things more in terms of vulnerability (Platt, Waters, Schulte-Koerne, Engelmann & Salemink, 2017), showing a close link between where people look (gaze biases) and how they think (or cognitive biases). In fact, so far, attentional research suggests that the mind affected by wellbeing struggles to switch off from negative information (Donaldson, Lam & Mathews, 2007).
Accordingly, this project seeks to investigate process-level experiences of mental health in the classroom during school-based learning, with a focus on eye movement patterns.
Staff
Lead researcher
