Shall we care about the user's feelings? Effect of Affect and Engagement on Visual Attention

Abstract

The present paper aims at describing the concept of how the interaction with computer devices may bene t from joint input of users emotional state and his/her eye movements characteristics. We claim that emotions regulate visual attention, changing its formal characteristics and thus in turn in uence the user's behaviour. We hypothesised that during interaction with an interface, positive mood will enhance exploratory eye movements. Participants of the study completed positive or neutral mood induction procedure followed by free viewing of classical paintings on computer screen. During the whole experimental procedure, the users' eye movements as well as their brain activity were recorded. Results con rm that positive mood changes the dynamics of visual attention. When completing a computer task, people's eye movements indicate shift from ambient toward more focal attention mode. However, positive mood slows down that process, fostering visual exploration of the presented stimuli. Obtained results are discussed in the context of self-adaptive user interfaces idea suggesting that the information about the users' emotional state together with visual attention characteristics and gaze information could be used as an input channel in order to create better user experience.