NeuroRelay

Below you can read the book review of Current Trends in Eye Tracking Research (by Horsley, M., Toon, N., Knightm B., Reilly, R., published in 2014) that I wrote for publication for the 9th issue of Neuromarketing Theory & Practice Magazine (published by Neuromarketing Science & Business Association).
It has always been a challenge to understand how we view, see and experience the world in an objective manner. Nowadays researchers make new findings about the way our visual system works and interacts with attention, perception and cognition, offering insights into understanding human behavior. Our eyes select and sample visual information and they move, on average, three to four times per second, while we are unaware of this. New technology allows researchers to record data and obtain moment-to-moment information for the behavior the observed person engages in. Current Trends in Eye Tracking Research (Springer, 2014) presents a wide range of recent research studies of over 55 researchers and academics that currently use this method.
What sets this book apart is the treasure of case studies. The book focuses on lessons learned in conducting eye movement research across different institutions, settings and disciplines, presenting innovative uses of existing technology as well as pioneering implementation of new technology in different research contexts or key challenges encountered in moving from raw data to findings.
The book is divided into four sections and each provides a central theme that gathers a series of chapters that come with a rich list of references that can strengthen the reader’s knowledge on that particular topic. Each chapter stands by itself, so readers can choose to read them in the desired order. A series of chapters in the book provide details of different novel applications of eye tracking in market research and present fundamental research findings on how to link eye tracking with EEG data or other forms of data, discussing current approaches for this alignment which are of real value to neuromarketing researchers that struggle in this integration process. Neuromarketers will find helpful especially the chapters focused on mobile eye tracking used in retail research and the use of eye movements research in marketing. With the advent of new observational technologies such as mobile eye tracking that captures consumers’ audio-visual attention, it is now possible to explore different environments and provide new insight into naturalistic shopping behavior (when reading complex visual displays, for example). After reading the book, you will get the impression that there are still so many paths to be discovered in this area of research.
In market research, eye-tracking technologies have been used to understand consumer cognitive and emotional responses to advertising communications, focusing on impact of branding, images and text in media, such as print and feature advertisements, billboards, product labeling, TV commercials and supermarket shelving. From this book, we find out that researchers have identified correlations between visual attention and, for example, frequency and duration of fixations and product preferences.
The book not only presents case studies and results, but it also helps researchers understand, for example how to improve the accuracy of the data, how to correctly calibrate the data being recorded with the stimuli, how to use the equipment, or how to read and correlate the data from gaze plots, heat maps and fixation analysis with the measures from neuronal correlates. Current Trends in Eye Tracking Research is an essential read for researchers (from both academic and business area) that use eye tracking in their current studies or plan using it in the future. Business managers might find it also a nice reference in order to understand the current development and use of eye tracking and how their business could benefit from it.