Using Eye Tracking and Electroencephalography (EEG) for Visual Search Experimentation in Virtual Environments: A Data Guide

Electroencephalography EEG and eye-tracking technologies have each been essential tools within the perceptual sciences community for many years. A growing number of studies now combine these two measurement technologies to elucidate the neural processes that underlie free viewing visual search. However, the majority employ a relatively passive approach static imagery, prescribed motion, or video stimuli. In our everyday interaction with the natural world, we navigate our environment actively seeking and using task-relevant visual information. For this reason, vision researchers increasingly utilize virtual reality VR, which offers interactive, realistic visual environments while maintaining experimental control. However, combining simultaneous measures of gaze position and neural activity within a VR environment remains a significant challenge. Here, we describe a data set in which participants freely navigate a virtual environment and search for targets while gaze position and EEG are synchronously recorded. This data guide summarizes the materials, methods, task specifications, and processing techniques used to provide sufficient context to interpret the data set while concisely summarizing our research objectives. Our aim is to bring together these data specifications in one cohesive document to increase data analysis efficacy, foster collaboration, and capture lessons learned for researchers using virtual environments for experimentation.