Beyond gaze: Understand cognitive load with eye tracking

Webinar details

This research webinar brings together experts in cognitive science, eye tracking, and applied training environments to explore how cognitive load can be measured through eye-based signals. The session provides practical insights into mental effort during tasks and will highlight how eye tracking is evolving from a tool for visual attention to an approach for measuring cognitive processing. 

The talks introduce cognitive load and its relevance across different research domains, from spatial memory to surgical training. You will learn how eye tracking can assess workload continuously and unobtrusively, offering an alternative to self-reports or EEG, which are often retrospective, intrusive, or resource intensive. 

This webinar covers: 

• Fundamental research on visuo-spatial switching and how pupillometry reveals hidden cognitive demands. 

• An applied study in medical education where eye tracking biomarkers evaluated learning and performance in surgical students. 

The webinar concludes with a roundtable Q&A, offering space for discussion on methodology and integration into existing workflows. 

Whether you work in neuroscience, education, or human factors, this session will provide actionable insights into how eye tracking can measure both where people look, and their level of cognitive load. 

Talks 

Revealing cognitive load in visuo-spatial switching processes via pupillometry using a Tobii wearable eye tracker 

Speaker: Dr. Renato Orti 

How often have you struggled to remember where you parked your car in a crowded parking lot? This difficulty arises from the increased cognitive load required to translate between body-centered (egocentric) and object-centered (allocentric) spatial representations. This talk will present how the cognitive load underlying visuo-spatial switching processes has been measured through pupillometry using a Tobii wearable eye tracker, complementing behavioral data. The findings show that, in some circumstances, the task-evoked cognitive load is only partially captured by traditional measures, like accuracy and response times. 

From eyes to expertise: Tracking cognitive load in surgical education 

Speakers: Dr. Benedikt Gollan and Dr. Karl H Schneider 

This talk introduces an eye tracking — based cognitive load biomarker designed to assess mental effort and competency development in real time. The talk will outline the concept behind the biomarker, which leverages pupillometric analytics as well as compensation of environmental brightness to quantify cognitive demands during task performance. It will highlight results from a medical training study, carried out at the Medical University Vienna, where the method was applied to track competency development in surgical students. Findings demonstrate how eye-based metrics can objectively capture learning progress, offering new opportunities for training assessment and personalized feedback in medical education.