Using Eye-tracking to Study Intuitive Reasoning on Physics Tasks

Understanding the ways that unconscious information processing occurs can help educators teach in more efficient ways. In any given science task, there are typically a myriad of relevant and irrelevant features that frame and direct reasoning pathways. To better train students to navigate task features productively, more needs to be understood about the ways that attention-attracting task features interact with reasoning processes. Eyetracking methodologies allow physics education researchers to record where a student allocates their attention, including the initial focus of attention. In this talk, we discuss results from eye-tracking research into two mechanics questions that have strong intuitive reasoning pathways that lead to incorrect conclusions. We analyze data from students in algebra-based physics 1 and 2. Various eye-tracking metrics were analyzed and results from this analyses are discussed in this talk.