It is possible to study how people from a variety cultures react or behave with the technology (here is one study: https://www.google.co.id/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://repositori.upf.edu/bitstream/handle/10230/20943/CHI_mcmarcos.pdf%3Bsequence%3D1&ved=2ahUKEwjZ5JDX-5zdAhXEpo8KHZ2rC8oQFjAAegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw0uZoFsyOFiPVAymONtUvDS), but I believe it's still not possible to investigate their cultures themselves.

Assuming the samples will be chosen randomly, most will not be familiar with the technology and will be too fascinated to try and see everything with it for us to get any natural, or perhaps, ingrained behavioral response. A person may normally look down when someone they respected pass by but when given the eye tracker they may not.

We can investigate their heat map when given specific set of images or text and if the sample size is enormous, we might be able to draw a correlation, but it would still be an investigation of some behavior, not the cultural background itself (because it's too broad. A person of a certain culture may not react in the norm of that culture due to their religion or lifestyle history).

Thank you for your reply and for the shared study.

My idea is to investigate if culture can generate any difference in gaze movements.

For example, this study used eye tracking to investigate differences in visual perception on a web page between Easterners and Westerners. Results revealed that Easterners (Korean and Chinese) are more Holistically-minded, while Westerners (Americans) prefer analytical pattern. Meaning that Easterners had a wide distribution of visual behavior covering the entire page, and Westerners were more focused on specific areas.

http://www.ijdesign.org/index.php/IJDesign/article/view/267/163

Very interesting, both the original question, as well as Tatum's thoughts and the study she provided. They give rise to the question how we understand 'culture'. Hofstede's important study was ground breaking at the time, but it is now dated and I believe we have to move beyond it. There are number of threads on culture in Researchgate.

The holistically-minded (i.e., taking into account and considering as many aspects of a phenomenon as possible) Easterner El Haddioui refers to may in fact be due to a careful weighing of options before making up one's mind, as compared to the seemingly rushed decision making for which Westerners are known. This may of course be due to cultural differences. Now I would like to throw in this point: what if a Westerner - typically with an urban background of many generations - makes 'rushed decisions' simply because this is required of him or her living in cities. I, for one, consider myself as a Westerner (although I have lived half of my adult life in non-Western countries), but I am a 'country boy'. And I am not talking of those huge US mid-Western farms, but of little Alpine homesteads, where my ancestors came from. You ask one of our farmers of his opinion on anything, and you will find that he will take his sweet time to answer, considering all options available to him. The point I am trying to make is that it just may be the case that we are talking of urban vs rural dweller (to simplify things), rather than Easterner (perhaps closer to rural life) and Westerner (closer to city life). Of course I am not trying to say that there is no Eastern-Western difference at all.

The next point, and this one that interests me even more - and in fact moved me to read this thread - is the way we are brought up to read. Eye trackers are fantastic gadgets to help us understand our reading patterns. I do a lot of teaching online and I know that my students have several applications open at any give time, not only the browser with my webinar. There is a mail client, several social media, etc., and their eyes constantly wander between them. In a typical Western educational setting there is nothing a lecturer can do about it. It is my understanding that Eastern educational settings are much more traditional, i.e., disciplined in this respect. It is my feeling that different reading habits also contribute to the observed differences.

In my previous studies, I worked on affect recognition and would therefore answer your question by splitting it in two parts: 1) is it possible to use eye tracking to extract emotions? 2) is it possible to use the extracted emotions to study culture?

1) There is a bunch of papers that investigate the link between gazes and emotions, for example, Article Joint Attention Simulation Using Eye-Tracking and Virtual Humans

2) you can find an approach to assessing culture using emotions here: Chapter Acquisition of Intercultural Data

i think eye-tracking using for People with special needs

Yes, eye tracking applications can be used for interactivity (for example for special needs individuals) and for diagnostic. I'm talking about diagnostic, the use of eye-tracking technology to investigate user's individual differences

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