Eye-Tracking

Historical reconstructions are an important tool for bringing the past closer to the public. However, we still know relatively little about how they affect museum visitors. In research conducted at the Bode Museum — during an exhibition and a fashion show of medieval Nubian dresses — we asked visitors to evaluate their aesthetic experience while viewing various reconstructions of medieval Nubian garments. By examining how visitors’ personality traits and the type of historical reconstruction influence their perception, our aim was to identify what makes such reconstructions appealing and how this correlates with visual behaviour, in order to inform the design of more engaging exhibitions in the future.

May 2, 2025

Nov 24, 2024

The role of archaeologists is not only uncover remains of the past but also present them to a broad audience. However, this can pose challenges, especially when researchers come from a different culture than the local inhabitants. To foster dialogue between archaeologists and the local community, we invited Sudanese and Western visitors to view medieval Nubian paintings, discovered at the Old Dongola Archaeological Site in Sudan, using a mobile eye-tracker. Recognizing similarities and differences in how these paintings are visually processed was our starting point for developing educational programs about paintings tailored to cultural perceptions.

Jul 20, 2024

Visual analysis of artefacts is a basic procedure in archaeological research. However, teaching the visual analysis of artefacts can be a challenge, mostly because seeing is not an entirely conscious process. To aid archaeological instructors and students in learning and teaching artefact analysis, we developed eye-tracking recordings that depict the gaze behavior of archaeological experts during artefact analysis (a method known as Eye Movement Modelling Examples - EMME). Subsequently, we presented these recordings to students during archaeological courses. The results showed that students gained various educational benefits from EMME.

May 15, 2024

Archaeologists are specialists in analysing heritage from past cultures. However, when conducting analyses, they are not free from the influence of their own cultures. To understand how culture and knowledge may influence the way archaeologists visually analysis remains from the past, we asked archaeology students from the University of Warsaw to analyse non-European medieval paintings from Faras Gallery National Museum in Warsaw as part of a project. Our goal was to determine if archaeological education can override culturally grounded tendencies in processing figurative art called Other Race Effect.

Feb 14, 2024

Jan 1, 2014