Hirsch, Alexander and Brielmann, Aenne and Tabandeh, Niloufar and Spitschan, Manuel (2026) Regulation of eye movements and pupil size in natural scenes. Vision Research, 244. ISSN 0042-6989
Preview |
Text
1-s2.0-S0042698926000532-main.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (4MB) | Preview |
Abstract
The human visual environment is complex in its spatial, temporal, and spectral properties and, consequently, in the way it activates retinal photoreceptors. While laboratory studies have advanced our understanding of eye movements, how visual behavior unfolds in naturalistic settings remains less well characterized. In this study, we recorded eye movements and pupil size while participants viewed indoor and outdoor scenes under naturalistic conditions while remaining unaware of the eye-movement recordings. During the initial phase of viewing, saccade frequency, amplitude, and peak velocity were higher indoors and were accompanied by larger pupil size. Saccade metrics converged after this early exploration phase, whereas pupil size remained consistently larger indoors. Over the full viewing period, indoor and outdoor conditions exhibited distinct correlations between eye-movement metrics and subjective scene ratings. By minimizing task constraints and participant awareness of eye tracking while maintaining a controlled workflow, this study provides a dataset that reflects natural viewing behavior with reduced confounds. These findings suggest that eye-movement dynamics are particularly sensitive during initial scene exploration, whereas pupil size reflects persistent environmental differences. The present dataset offers a useful reference point for future research on eye movements in real-world contexts.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information and Comments: | /© 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ). |
| Faculty / Department: | Faculty of Human and Digital Sciences > School of Psychology |
| SWORD Depositor: | RISE Symplectic |
| Depositing User: | RISE Symplectic |
| Date Deposited: | 19 Oct 2026 13:55 |
| Last Modified: | 19 Oct 2026 13:55 |
| URI: | https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/5001 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |
