In Cognitive Fit Theory (CFT) based research, there is a consensus about cognitive effort as the underlying mechanism impacting performance. Although critical to the theory, cognitive effort and its direct empirical assessment remain a challenge. In this repeated measures experimental study, we introduce a research model and develop hypotheses based on the fundamental relationships underlying CFT while integrating eye tracking as an approach for assessing cognitive effort. Our study finds that eye tracking technology, specifically fixation-based metrics, can be used in the understanding of cognitive processes initiated by our data representation choices. Specifically, we find that in all tasks except the complex-symbolic task, users experience meaningful change in the physiological assessment of cognitive effort based on the condition of cognitive fit. We contrast our findings to existing research and find that physiological indicators of cognitive effort can provide critical insights often missed in traditional CFT research.

在基于认知契合理论 (CFT) 的研究中，人们一致认为认知努力是影响绩效的潜在机制。尽管对该理论至关重要，但认知努力及其直接的经验评估仍然是一个挑战。在这项重复测量实验研究中，我们引入了一个研究模型，并基于 CFT 的基本关系提出假设，同时将眼动追踪作为一种评估认知努力的方法。我们的研究发现，眼动追踪技术，特别是基于注视的指标，可用于理解由我们的数据表示选择引发的认知过程。具体来说，我们发现在除复杂符号任务之外的所有任务中，用户在基于认知契合条件的认知努力的生理评估中体验到有意义的变化。我们将我们的发现与现有研究进行对比，发现认知努力的生理指标可以提供传统 CFT 研究中经常错过的关键见解。