Investigate undergraduate students' use of spontaneously generated representations in physics problem solving using eye-tracking

Problem solving in physics typically involves a multi-step, iterative process where students must juggle and manipulate various concepts and strategies simultaneously. Physics problems also often present and request information through multiple representations, such as equations, graphs, and diagrams, which may encode the same underlying concepts in different forms. While previous research has extensively explored students' ability to interpret and create these representations when prompted, there remains a gap in understanding the role of spontaneously generated representations during problem-solving.

Recent advances in eye-tracking technology provide an opportunity to capture both the creation of self-generated representations and the focus of student attention throughout the entire problem-solving process. To explore this further, we conducted a pilot investigation into students' eye-tracking data while they solved physics problems, with the goal of identifying if and how they generate and utilize various representations as part of their problem-solving approach.