Complex network of eye movements during rapid automatized naming.

Introduction: Although the method of visualizing eye-tracking data as a time-series might enhance performance in the understanding of gaze behavior, it has not yet been thoroughly examined in the context of rapid automated naming (RAN). Methods: This study attempted, for the first time, to measure gaze behavior during RAN from the perspective of network-domain, which constructed a complex network [referred to as Results: Findings showed that GCN in each RAN task was assortative and possessed "small-world" and community architecture. Additionally, observations regarding the influence of RAN task types included that: (i) five topological parameters (i.e., average degree, clustering coefficient, assortativity coefficient, modularity, and community number) could reflect the difference between tasks N-num (i.e., naming of numbers) and N-cha (i.e., naming of Chinese characters); (ii) there was only one topological parameter (i.e., network diameter) which could reflect the difference between tasks N-obj (i.e., naming of objects) and N-col (i.e., naming of colors); and (iii) when compared to GCN in alphanumeric RAN, GCN in non-alphanumeric RAN may have higher average degree, global efficiency, and small-worldness, but lower network diameter, characteristic path length, clustering coefficient, and modularity. Findings also illustrated that most of these topological parameters were largely independent of traditional eye-movement metrics. Discussion: This article revealed the architecture and topological parameters of GCN as well as the influence of task types on them, and thus brought some new insights into the understanding of RAN from the perspective of complex network.