New study reveals: Gazing behavior continues to develop into adulthood!

New study reveals: Gazing behavior continues to develop into adulthood!

On June 5, 2025, the temporary exhibit “Millions of Moments” will open in the Gießen Mathematicum, where gaze data was collected over the course of a year. This innovative project is led by the Justus Liebig University of Gießen (JLU), which shows that people's gaze behavior develops not only until primary school age, but also into young adulthood. As part of a study by the team led by Dr. Marcel Linka and Prof. Dr. Ben de Haas examined the eye movements of over 6,700 people between the ages of 5 and 72. The study was published in the journal Nature Human Behavior and reveals surprising findings about the slow growth of adult gaze behavior over nearly two decades.

Several million eye movements were measured in 40 everyday scenes. Those involved observed how younger children focused their gaze more often on hands or touched objects, while text elements came into view less often. The analyzes showed that children were less likely to look horizontally across the image, suggesting that perception changes with experience. Frequently seen objects shape gaze behavior, causing gaze patterns to become more similar over the course of adolescence.

Development into young adulthood

The results of the study are fascinating. The team has shown that adults exhibit specific gaze patterns, and the understanding of “mental maps” for typical scenes will be further investigated in future research. These are highly relevant to better understand viewing habits and to recognize children's needs in perceiving the world.

The team is also part of the Cluster of Excellence TAM – The Adaptive Mind, which investigates universal principles of adaptability and perception. An interesting aspect is the planned master's degree program “Mind, Brain and Behavior” at JLU, which will deepen such topics.

Eye tracking as a research tool

The eye tracking technology used here is crucial for measuring eye movements and pupil size. This method provides insights into psychological areas such as attention, motivation and memory, and is also used in work with preverbal infants and non-human populations. Researchers ask important questions, such as how infants' knowledge and emotions develop through adolescence, and draw conclusions about other animals' knowledge while comparing findings with human thinking. The non-invasive method, supported by devices measuring using the Pupil Center Corneal Reflection technique, has contributed to the analysis of eye movements from infancy to adulthood.

In addition, eye tracking is used in market research to analyze user behavior. Mobile eye tracking devices enable studies in both real and simulated environments and are of great value in areas such as reading research, healthcare and the automotive industry. Here, the importance of technology increases in improving vehicle safety and user experience as well as in supporting people with paralysis.

The ability of eye tracking to enable immersive experiences in virtual reality through the technique of “foveated rendering” could also fundamentally change the future. The technology opens up new fields of application and is on the verge of a breakthrough in market research, even if it still requires expertise.

Overall, the study highlights not only the advances in perception research, but also the key implications of eye tracking for our understanding of human behavior and for the application of the technique in various scientific and practical areas. While the individual's gaze often remains unconscious, research at Giessen University opens up new ways to understand what people see and how they perceive the world. Further information can be found at uni-giessen.de, eva.mpg.de and horizont.net.