Fixating, Attending, and Observing: Behavioral Continuity towards Perception

With eye-tracking technology, behavioral researchers are able to track changes in eye-movements and fixation patterns during matching-to-sample performance. Still, the challenge is to operationalize the behavioral functions that eye-movements entail during such events. The purpose of this presentation is to provide a conceptual systematic framework on visual perception from a behavior analytic viewpoint. Based on influential publications on the observing response and eye-fixation, we will present a conceptual distinction between fixating, attending, and observing—towards perception. Basically, (1) ocular observing responses occur with and without clear-cut eye-fixation and (2) ocular observing responses are context-specific, hence, vary across behaviors, settings, and individuals. In behavioral research, fixation measures such as rate, number, proportion, and pattern have profound implications as they reveal important information about behavioral eye-movement pattern in the response delay. Thus, a conceptual understanding of eye-fixations and ocular observing adds to our understanding of complex human behavior.