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  Session: PER: Problem Solving
  Paper Type: Contributed
  Title: Comparing Expert and Novice Eye Movements While Solving Physics Problems
  Meeting:
  Location: Broadway III/IV
  Date:
  Time: 1:45PM - 1:55PM
  Author: Adrian Carmichael, Kansas State University
785-532-7167, adrianc@phys.ksu.edu
  Co-Author(s): Adam Larson, Elizabeth Gire, Lester Loschky, N. Sanjay Rebello
  Abstract: Eye movement data has been shown to enhance our understanding of students' problem- solving behaviors in physics and also help us identify differences between novices and experts.[1] In this study we compare the eye movement data of experts and novices using introductory conceptual physics problems. The problems chosen all utilize concepts that have an inherent spatial component in their visual representation. To become aware of the critical concept in each problem, the solver must attend to that spatial component of the figure. To gain additional information about how the experts and novices answered each problem, we interviewed the participants about the reasoning process they used and compared these answers to the eye movements. We will discuss our results from interviews as well as eye-tracking data from both experts and novices.
  Footnotes: 1. Robert Tai, John Loehr, and Frederick Brigham, International Journal of Research & Method in Education 29, 185-208 (2006).

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