Blickskiften

Blickskiften (Swedish for "gaze shifts," literally "glance shifts") refers to the process by which a viewer's eyes rapidly move from one point of interest to another. In cognitive psychology and vision science, blickskiften encompasses saccadic eye movements and the allocation of attention during scanning of scenes, reading, or tasks requiring visual search.

Measurement and mechanisms: Eye-tracking technology records fixations and saccades. Typical metrics include fixation duration, saccade amplitude, fixation count, and scanpath. Blickskiften are driven by both bottom-up saliency in the scene and top-down goals, such as task demands or expectations. They may be voluntary or reflexive and can be influenced by fatigue, cognitive load, or disorders.

Applications: In research and practice, blickskiften are relevant to reading comprehension, user interface design, advertising effectiveness, driving safety, sports analysis, and neuropsychology. Understanding gaze shifts helps model attentional priorities, optimize information layout, or assess cognitive workload.

Terminology and usage: The term blickskiften is primarily used in Swedish-language literature; in English the equivalent terms are gaze shifts or eye movements, often described in terms of saccades and fixations.

See also: This topic is closely related to saccades, fixations, scanpaths, and eye-tracking methods.