The Potential Role of Eye Tracking in Stated Preference Survey Design and Piloting

Transport surveys are designed to provide information that can give greater insight into individuals’ mobility habits. It is important in these surveys that efforts be made to ensure that the data collected accurately reflects those of the subject population under examination. A stated preference survey is a particular format of surveys that has been of particular interest to transport researchers over the last few decades. These surveys provide researchers with a means of creating choice contexts that attempt to closely mirror real life choice contexts, thereby providing insight into the factors that influence individuals’ choices. This paper outlines a stated preference experiment based upon the use of an imagebased elicitation mechanism, designed to highlight the role that emerging low cost eyetracking solutions can play to aid survey design. Specific attention is placed on the impacts of scenario layout and the prominence of alternatives and attribute levels on stated responses. The results demonstrate the complexity involved in information assimilation in stated preference scenarios, even in the relatively simple example used for this study. Brazil, Caulfield and Bhat