Symposium: Eye-tracking and Subtitling
One-day Symposium
8th July 2024
School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts, University of Warwick, UK
Organisers: Dr David Orrego-Carmona, Dr Sijing Lu and Dr Hanyu Wang
Eye-tracking technology has opened avenues for studying how people process, understand and react to subtitled audiovisual content. By tracking viewers’ eye movements and measuring fixations, researchers can gain insights into the cognitive processes involved in reading subtitles while simultaneously processing audio and video information. This one-day symposium will bring together experts at the forefront of this interdisciplinary field and ECRs to take stock of the latest findings, methodologies, and theoretical frameworks related to eye tracking and subtitle reading.
While valuable work has already been done over the last 40 years, there are still many open research questions to explore in this domain. Recent years have seen a refining of hypotheses: studies currently explore how viewer characteristics like age, language proficiency, and provenance impact subtitle reading behaviour and cognitive load, as well as the interplay between subtitle presentation rates, editing and overall comprehension.
Where do we go from now?
Overall, this symposium aims to spark new cross-disciplinary collaboration and highlight promising directions for advancing our understanding of this multimodal processing phenomenon. The event aims to promote the cross-pollination of ideas and foster new collaborative initiatives that can push the boundaries of this field even further. Potential focus areas include the impact of AI and new distribution platforms, post-editing and creativity, combinations of eye tracking with other biometric measures, and deeper examination of how contextual factors like genre, visual presentation, cultural context, and audiovisual complexity shape the subtitle reading experience.
Invited speakers
- Dr Ana Guerberof Arenas, University of Groningen
- Prof Agnieszka Szarkowska, University of Warsaw
- Prof Jan-Louis Kruger, Macquarie University
- Dr Susana Valdez, Leiden University/AIS Fellow, University of Warwick
- Dr Valentina Ragni, University of Warsaw
- Dr Xiaochun Zhang, UCL
Participants
This is a free-one-day symposium but places are limited. Priority will be given to ECRs interested in presenting their work during the dedicated poster session.
Poster proposal
The symposium will feature presentations by the invited speakers as well as a dedicated poster session. Participants are encouraged to propose a poster featuring their work in the field. This could be a completed project, work in progress or initial research ideas.
The poster session will provide an excellent opportunity for attendees to share their latest work, gather feedback, and engage in discussions with fellow researchers in an informal setting. Presenters will have time to pitch their ideas and invite feedback to stimulate the conversation.
Registration deadlines
Registration with poster proposal: 3rd June
Additional spaces (no poster): 1st July
Practical information
Venue
Wolfson Research Exchange, University of Warwick Library.
Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom
The University of Warwick is a campus university located south-west of Coventry city centre, in England, Great Britain. The nearest major railway station is Coventry. The closest airport is Birmingham International Airport, or there are regular rail services to London for easy access to/from the London airports. You can find detailed information on travel to the University campus here.
For more information: https://warwick.ac.uk/about/visiting/
