ABSTRACT
Eye-tracking technology monitors participants’ eye movements to different types of verbal and non-verbal stimuli presented on a computer screen, e.g., written texts, computer-based tests, images or scenes, video content and subtitles, and written production tasks. Participants can engage as they normally would with these computer-based activities while their eye movements are monitored. Where participants look on the screen indicates what they are attending to and for how long. Thus, attention, or processing effort, can be inferred from eye movements. Such eye movement behavior can be explored in relation to individual differences. In this chapter, we first discuss eye-tracking technology to understand how it might be used in individual differences research. Then, recent research that has explored the role of individual differences, in particular cognitive differences (e.g., executive control and working memory), on eye movement patterns is examined. Finally, the potential of eye-tracking data to be used as a proxy for individual differences and/or as a diagnostic tool is considered.
