One task – Many strategies of interpreting and reasons of decision making in the context of an eye-tracking research

• Main Authors: Rosiek, Roman, Sajka, Mirosława
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Content analysis; Decision making; Empirical analysis; Pupillometry; Questionnaires; Tracking
• ISSN: 0094-243X; 1551-7616
• DOI: 10.1063/1.5124772

This article presents a snapshot example of a set of results from didactic research spanning multiple years on the understanding of Newton’s laws of motion. The main research technique used in this study was eye-tracking, which was combined with other tools such as open in-depth interviews, questionnaires, and surveys. In the case of some of the subjects, psychophysiological methods were used, such as monitoring HRV, respiration, pupillometry, and EEG. This article focuses on the results of solving one selected task out of those which were the subject of the aforementioned empirical studies, only in the scope of eye-tracking researched backed by in-depth interviews and open questionnaires. The article presents and categorizes the strategies of task content analysis and methods of solving the task, which involved describing speed in a vertical throw while ignoring air resistance. Analysis is performed on the impact of common knowledge, pseudo-scientific knowledge, school experience, and the emotional relation to physics as a school subject on solving the task, various explanations regarding the answers provided by the respondents are shown, and the most common reasoning errors are presented.