We are grateful to Amanda Murdoch who has said she is willing to present a seminar on her recent work with Eyetracking while she visit's Saskatoon.

Amanda is a recent graduate from a MMath in Computational Math program at UWaterloo, prior to which she completed a BMath in Statistics, also in Waterloo. During the Masters program, she conducted research studying the way people look at statistical graphics. In particular, she worked on creating graphics with some interesting structure, and using eye tracking hardware to record where people look when they make decisions about some classic plots.

Tracking Eye Movement when Viewing Statistical Graphics

Eye tracking has been used in a variety of studies in the past, in recording where people look when they view art, documents, websites, faces, and more. One area where not much study has been done is on statistical graphics or data visualizations. A preliminary study has now been conducted, using a Tobii brand eye tracking device and human participants to generate data on where people are really looking when they view plots. Three types of plots have been used, each with an associated simple question for the participant. Participant's responses to the questions were recorded as well as the data output from the tracker. Results from this study show that people use different approaches for answering the same questions. The current work has led to many more questions about further work that may be done in this area.