Newly devised covert eye tracking “CovET” system succeed in measuring visual recognizability of Saizeriya logo

Key Takeaways:

1. Developed a new neuromarketing method of “Covet Eye Tracking” system which measures visual recognizability in the peripheral visual fields instead of the central visual fields.
2. Enables evaluation of brand logos with higher visual recognizability that can be recognized outside the central visual fields.
3. Discovered that the Japanese version of Saizeriya logo has higher visual recognizability in peripheral visual fields than the English version.   

The research team led by Professor Ippeita DAN of the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Chuo University, has developed a new method “Covet Eye Tracking: CovET” system to evaluate visual recognizability within the peripheral visual fields instead of the central visual fields. By using this newly devised system, the team revealed the brand logos with high visual recognizability that can be recognized outside the eye’s field of gaze and some of its features.  

The conventional eye tracking technology detects the position of fixation points, corresponding to the center of the visual field. It is common to analyze the position of the fixation point as the only indicator of the direction of attention. However, is that really so?

The typical evaluation method using eye tracking is to present target stimuli of images or videos to the participants and analyze the index regarding the fixation point. In most such cases, the participants gaze at the target on overt attention. On the contrary, the research team has newly devised a system that analyzes the participants’ eye visual behavior on covert attention. The team used CovET to allow the participants to recognize the target on covert attention by presenting cognitive psychological experiment issues.      

The research team has conducted a behavioral experiment applying this newly devised system to evaluate brand logos. 24 young adult participants were asked to respond to the brand logos except for brand logo 1 by pressing the button, whereas they must withhold a response when brand logo 1 was presented. In this way, the team measured visual recognizability. The findings were completely different from our expectations; “the participants will gaze at brand logo 1 if its visual recognizability is high, whereas the participants will take time if low.” However, there were a lot of cases in which the participants did not press the button even though they hadn’t gaze brand logo 1 obviously, suggesting that they recognized the brand logo 1 with a peripheral visual field. The research team measured the index for dominance in processing in central visual field (iDC)^＊¹）and indicated that this finding of visual recognizability is statistically meaningful. The fundamental concepts of conventional eye tracking premise the position of visual fixations indicates where the subject’s interest lies. However, new finding indicates that covert attention, or the attention given to areas outside of the fixation point also processes the already remembered stimuli easily.  

In comparison with the English version of Saizeriya logo, the Japanese version logo, in particular, indicated higher visual recognizability on covert attention even when the logo was presented outside the fixation area. Although the English version is Saizeriya’s main logo, this study revealed that the visual recognizability of the English version is not that high. With the contribution of Japanese version logo which indicates higher visual recognizability, Saizeriya brand is working on lifting its brand recognition.    

The research team is set to develop the CovET system to serve as a promising tool in expanding neuromarketing research that underpins branding strategy using visual recognizability in peripheral areas as an indicator. 

<Glossary>

^＊¹）iDC: index for dominance in processing in central visual field

iDC is an indicator which reflects the processing in the central visual field. A larger iDC indicates greater dependency of processing in the central visual field, whereas lower iDC indicates greater dependency of processing in the peripheral visual field. To calculate iDC, first consider processing in the central visual field when the eye’s field of gaze overlaps with the target logo and then calculate the accuracy. Next, consider processing in the peripheral visual field when the eye’s field of gaze fails to overlap the target logo and then calculate the accuracy. iDC can be calculated by deducting accuracy with processing in the peripheral field from accuracy with processing in the central visual field.