Eye Tracking as a Tool to Investigate Recognition of Historical Personalities by Different Age Groups

Eye tracking is a new technique which adds a new dimension not only to marketing and communication research, but also to education, history, psychology and politics Its qualitatively new information is more reliable and detailed in contrast to the traditional research techniques. Facial recognition is crucial for everyday life. The article presents the results of a study related to the recognition of historical personalities by respondents of different age groups. Portraits of Russian and European emperors were selected as stimuli. The results of the eye tracking study were supplemented by a short survey. The gaze plots, the fixation duration, the total time of gaze fixation on the stimulus, the number of fixations were analyzed. The hypothesis about objective differences in the number of gaze fixation and the duration of fixations, the number of ant saccades during perception of the images of familiar historical personalities for the respondents from the different age groups was confirmed. During the process of recognition of familiar historical personalities respondents made shorter gaze fixations and faster gaze transitions from one part of the image to another. Peter the Great became the most recognizable historical figure among both older and younger respondents. The patterns of perception of familiar and unfamiliar historical figures were revealed. The main areas of interest of the respondents from the older age group were internal facial features, while the respondents of the younger age group studied both internal and external facial features of a historical figure.