Reveal of implicit knowledge in visual contents by eye tracking technique

The eye tracking technique reveals the orientation of individuals to stimuli on the visual during the examination of visual elements. With the quantitative data obtained from the eye metrics of the individuals for the stimuli, predictions can be made about the attitudes, interests and thoughts of the individuals towards the visual element. Reaching different information sources in terms of competition is an important element in terms of sustainability. For this purpose, making applications to obtain implicit knowledge in visual content will be an important competitive tool in knowledge management. The aim of the study is to reveal implicit knowledge in visual content by eye tracking technique. In this context, the learning outcomes of the Design-I and Design-II course conducted in the 1st grade of the Faculty of Education, Department of Fine Arts, Art Teaching, were used. In the study, the "purposive sampling" method, one of the improbable sampling methods, based on the researcher's judgments, was used. It is based on selecting people or objects with characteristics that can represent the universe and also give the most appropriate response to research purposes. The experimental study group of the study consists of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade undergraduate students studying at Bursa Uludag University Faculty of Education, Department of Fine Arts, Art Teaching. The control group of the study consists of 4th grade undergraduate students studying at Bandirma Onyedi Eylul University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing. The study was conducted in the spring term of the 2020-2021 academic year. The study consisted of a total of 112 students, 51 students from the control group and 61 students from the experimental group. As a data collection method, eye tracking, a common experimental method where visual distraction is observed by recording eye movement and gaze position over time and task, was used. "Eye Tracking Visual Achievement Test" developed by field experts and researcher was used as a data collection tool in the research. In the analysis of the data obtained, independent groups t-test and one-way variance analysis (One-Way ANOVA) from parametric tests, Mann Whitney U-Test and Kruskal-Wallis tests from non-parametric tests were used. The results of the present study reveal that the eye tracking method is effective in terms of distinguishing trained/untrained groups in terms of art teaching. According to these results, it can be determined whether they have implicit knowledge from the eye metrics in the visuals between the experimental and control groups. It was found that eye movements of participants in the experimental group, divided into groups according to their grades, exhibited similarities in point of the number and duration of focus. Eye metrics for AOI were found to be similar among control group participants who were divided into groups as irrelevant groups and relevant groups. According to the results, in terms of implicit knowledge levels for AOI, it is concluded that the fields of interest of the irrelevant group and the relevant group are similar. The difference in implicit knowledge between the experimental group participants and the relevant group participants from the control group was determined by eye tracking. It has been determined that the knowledge obtained outside formal education processes is not effective compared to the knowledge obtained with formal education. The study also reveals that there is a difference in the eye metrics of the visuals when the AOI of the experimental group and the control group participants are not taken into account. In line with these results, it can be concluded that participants can detect differences from visual eye metrics without obtaining expert opinion in the field. In the process of unconditional examination of the visuals, there is a significant difference between the experimental group and the control group in terms of eye tracking strategies. The results were discussed in accordance with the relevant literature and recommendations for implementation and for future studies were presented.