Cognitve processing torword traditional and new chinese style furniture evidence from eye-tracking technology
Eye-tracking technology was shown to have the ability to indicate human’s cognitive preferences toward objects. Using eye-tracking technology to study the cognitive preferences on different Chinese furniture style may have the potential to promote the furniture design from a novel perspective. Experiment was designed to test the differences of eye movement index (total fixation time, average fixation counts and average pupil diameter) within variables of gender, major and furniture styles. Participants were asked to observe two sets of different styles of Chinese furniture pictures on computer screen. Significant differences of total fixation time and average fixation counts were found between different furniture styles (p<0.01), gender (p<0.001), but not in major (p>0.05). Significant difference was also found in average pupil diameter in different furniture styles (p<0.01) and gender (p<0.01).Subjects’ fixation time stayed longer on new Chinese style furniture pictures than traditional furniture pictures. The results indicated that compared to traditional Chinese style furniture, people tend to take more interest in the new Chinese style furniture. Gender as a factor had a significant influence on the cognitive processing towards the viewing of pictures of the Chinese style furniture. Meanwhile, subjects paid more attention to the decorative details on the furniture, implying appropriate design and decoration may improve people’s interest to the furniture.