Eye movement as a mediator of the relationships among time pressure, feedback, and learning performance

The goal of this study is to examine the effects of time pressure and feedback on learning performance, as mediated by eye movement. Time pressure is one of main causes of human error in the workplace. Providing participants with feedback about their performance before task completion has been shown to reduce human error in diverse domains. Since both time pressure and feedback induce motivation, which is closely related to attention, we measured participants' eye movements to trace their attention and information acquisition coupled with a visual display. Time-to-deadline (long and short) and the presence of feedback were the independent factors used while measuring participants' performance and eye movements as they learned new information about the subject of project management and answered multiple-choice questions via self-paced online learning systems. Using structural equation modeling, we found a mediating effect of eye movement on the relationships among time-to-deadline, feedback, and learning performance. Insufficient time-to-deadline accelerated the number of fixations on the screen, which resulted in longer task completion times and increased correct rates for participants learning about project management. The models in this study suggest the possibility of predicting performance from eye movement under time-to-deadline and feedback conditions. The structural equation model in the study can be applied to online and remote learning systems, in which time management is one of the main challenges for individual learners.