Presentation
Reading the Investigators’ Minds: Eye Tracking Relevance in Investigative Text Analysis
SessionFOR2: Forensic Professionals
DescriptionIdentifying relevant information in large volumes of unstructured text is a central yet cognitively demanding task in law enforcement and intelligence analysis. Under conditions of time pressure and uncertainty, analysts must continuously evaluate textual relevance while constructing mental models of a case. This study examines whether eye-tracking metrics can serve as indicators of relevance-related cognitive processing during investigative reading. Building on the eye–mind engagement hypothesis, an eye-tracking experiment was conducted with 49 experts from the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), who performed investigative reading tasks using darknet forum texts. Oculomotor measures included fixation duration, fixation count, regressions, and pupil dilation at the word level. Results revealed significant differences between relevant and irrelevant words. Relevant words elicited longer and more frequent fixations, as well as increased incoming and outgoing regressions, indicating deeper cognitive processing and greater integrative effort. In contrast, pupil dilation did not significantly differ between conditions. These findings demonstrate that eye-tracking measures reliably reflect relevance-related cognitive engagement. Integrating such implicit signals into investigative support systems may support human-centered design, reduce cognitive load, and improve analytical efficiency.
Event Type
Lecture
TimeTuesday, October 20th4:30pm - 4:50pm PDT
Location
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