Design factors influence consumers’ gazing behaviour and decision time in an eye-tracking test: A study on food images Thi Minh Hang Vu a,b,⇑ , Viet Phu Tu b , Klaus Duerrschmid a a Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria b School of Biotechnology and Food Technology, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, 1 Dai Co Viet Road, Hanoi, Vietnam article info Article history: Received 30 November 2014 Received in revised form 28 May 2015 Accepted 28 May 2015 Available online 29 May 2015 Keywords: Eye-tracking Gazing behaviour Decision time Design factor Food image abstract The eye-tracking method has been increasingly used for studying consumer behaviour over the last few years. Understanding factors influencing consumers’ gazing behaviour in an eye-tracking test will con- tribute to a better organisation and a more valid application of the method. The aim of this work is to study how test design influences gazing behaviour and decision time of food consumers in an eye-tracking test. Three factors of the test design were investigated: (1) Number of images in one testing picture (two, three, four, five, and six images/picture); (2) content of question (tastiness, healthiness, price, convenience, and familiarity); and (3) type of evaluation (maximum choice, minimum choice, ranking, rat- ing, and grouping). Two experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, performed with 100 par- ticipants, the influence of individual factors was studied. In the second experiment, performed with 64 participants, the joint effects (interactions) of the tested factors were investigated. The results showed that gazing behaviour and decision time are strongly influenced by the type of evaluation and the number of images, but not by the content of question. No joint effect of influencing factors (number of images and type of evaluation) was found. Findings are discussed in considering the relationship between eye-movements, cognitive goals, and tasks. This study highlights the importance of understanding factors influencing gazing behaviour and decision time in an eye-tracking test. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction 1.1. Eye tracking applications in sensory and consumer science The eye-tracking technique permits observation and measure- ment of the movement of eyes when consumers receive a visual stimulus or view a product. The information regarding their gazing behaviour is collected in an objective, rapid, and non-invasive way (Graham, Orquin, & Visschers, 2012). An attached device or sensor will record the eyes’ movements, mark the observed region, and mark the time that the eyes stopped in each region, reflecting the observer’s attention and interest levels for each zone of the visual stimulus (Russo, 1978). A number of different measures such as time to first fixation, fixations before, fixation duration, and fixation count, can be used to characterise the gazing behaviour. By analys- ing those measures, the gazing behaviour of consumers and influencing factors can be described, and then relationships to other important behavioural aspects such as choice behaviour can be determined. Therefore, the eye-tracking technique has great potential for objective observational studies in sensory and con- sumer science. In the food sector, eye-tracking technique has mainly been applied in packaging research. By recording the dwell times and the areas that consumers pay attention to, an eye-tracker can determine how packaging attracts consumer attention. Some stud- ies conducted a free-viewing task but varied stimulus-driven attention to study how packaging attributes (layout, nutrition label, etc.) affect consumer gazing behaviour and then suggest how to develop an appropriate packaging design (Piqueras-Fiszman, Velasco, Salgado-Montejo, & Spence, 2013; Rebollar, Lidón, Martín, & Puebla, 2015; Siegrist, Leins-Hess, & Keller, 2015). Others conducted a specific task, such as evaluating the healthiness of a product and the willingness to purchase or to try the product, to study the goal-oriented attention (Ares et al., 2013; Bialkova & van Trijp, 2011; Graham & Jeffery, 2012; van Herpen & Trijp, 2011). The eye-tracking technique is also applied to access visual stimuli of food products in order to evalu- ate the consumer perception of sensory properties such as colour, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2015.05.008 0950-3293/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author at: Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Muthgasse 18, 1190 Vienna, Austria. E-mail addresses: hang.vu-thi-minh@students.boku.ac.at, hang.vuthiminh@ hust.edu.vn (T.M.H. Vu). Food Quality and Preference 47 (2016) 130–138 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Food Quality and Preference journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodqual