Fragmented Visual Attention in Web Browsing: Weibull Analysis of Item Visit Times

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A4 Artikkeli konferenssijulkaisussa

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en

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17

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Advances in Information Retrieval - 45th European Conference on Information Retrieval, ECIR 2023, Proceedings, pp. 62-78, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) ; Volume 13981 LNCS

Abstract

Users often browse the web in an exploratory way, inspecting what they find interesting without a specific goal. However, the temporal dynamics of visual attention during such sessions, emerging when users gaze from one item to another, are not well understood. In this paper, we examine how people distribute visual attention among content items when browsing news. Distribution of visual attention is studied in a controlled experiment, wherein eye-tracking data and web logs are collected for 18 participants exploring newsfeeds in a single- and multi-column layout. Behavior is modeled using Weibull analysis of item (article) visit times, which describes these visits via quantities like durations and frequencies of switching focused item. Bayesian inference is used to quantify uncertainty. The results suggest that visual attention in browsing is fragmented, and affected by the number, properties and composition of the items visible on the viewport. We connect these findings to previous work explaining information-seeking behavior through cost-benefit judgments.

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Funding Information: Acknowledgements. This work was supported by the Finnish Center for Artificial Intelligence (FCAI), Business Finland (MINERAL project), the Academy of Finland (projects Human Automata – ID: 328813, and BAD – ID: 318559), as well as the Technology Industries of Finland (project SOWP). We would also like to thank the reviewers for their feedback. Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).

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Putkonen, A, Nioche, A, Laine, M, Kuuramo, C & Oulasvirta, A 2023, Fragmented Visual Attention in Web Browsing : Weibull Analysis of Item Visit Times. in J Kamps, L Goeuriot, F Crestani, M Maistro, H Joho, B Davis, C Gurrin, A Caputo & U Kruschwitz (eds), Advances in Information Retrieval - 45th European Conference on Information Retrieval, ECIR 2023, Proceedings. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 13981 LNCS, Springer, pp. 62-78, European Conference on Information Retrieval, Dublin, Ireland, 02/04/2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28238-6_5