Visual Attention to Repeated Print Advertising: A Test of Scanpath Theory

The authors examine consumers’ visual attention during repeated exposures to print advertisements using eye-tracking methodology. The authors propose a statistical model comprising submodels for two key measures of visual attention to elements of the advertisement: attention duration and inter- and intraelement saccades. These measures are vital to understanding attention wear-out and the impact of repetition on advertising effectiveness but have not been considered in previous research. The results of two studies show that (1) attention duration decreases significantly across advertising repetitions and (2) attentional scanpaths, as measured through saccades, remain constant across advertising repetitions and across experimentally induced and naturally occurring conditions. Scanpaths obey a stationary, reversible, first-order Markov process. The authors offer implications for attention theory and advertising processing.