Cognitive State Measurement on Learning Materials by Utilizing Eye Tracker and Thermal Camera

We demonstrate how information derived from pervasive sensors can quantify cognitive states of learners while they are reading a textbook. Eye tracking is one of the most effective approaches to measuring reading behavior. For example, high fixation duration represents a reader's attention on a document. However, it is still a challenging task to predict the reason for the attention (i.e., is it because of his/her interest or trouble of understanding?). In this paper, we utilize additional sensing modality to solve the problem. On the dataset of 12 high school students' reading behaviors, we have found that the changing of pupil diameter and nose temperature are highly correlated with their cognitive states including their interests and efforts for reading/solving tasks on learning materials in Physics.