Rudolf Groner (born July 26, 1942, Glarus, Switzerland) is a Swiss psychologist, specialized in cognitive psychology and media psychology.

Professional life

Groner received a PhD in psychology at the University of Vienna,

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous c ...

, in 1966. From 1968 to 1970 he was postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in Theoretical Psychology at the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherf ...

, Edmonton, Canada, and member of the Michigan Mathematical Psychology Program in 1969. In 1981 he became Professor of Psychology at the University of Bern. He was invited Visiting Professor at Humboldt University Berlin, at the University of Wollongong, Australia, at Kyoto University and Nagoya University, Japan. From 1998 – 2001 he was appointed Director of the Swiss National Postdoctoral Program "Cognitive Psychology - Basic and Applied Aspects". In 1971 he was the founder of Visllab, the laboratory for the study of cognitive processes and eye movements at the University of Bern. In 1980, Rudolf Groner initiated an interdisciplinary network called "European Group of Scientists active in Eye Movement Research". This group includes scientists who use eye movement registration as a research tool and develop models based on oculomotor data obtained from a wide spectrum of phenomena, ranging from the neurophysiological to the perceptual and the cognitive level. The group's focus is on the exchange of information on current research, equipment and software. Starting 1981, the group organizes a biennial conference at different locations all over Europe (https://www.eyemovement.org/ecem.html). Over the years, the group published ten edited books. Starting in 2008, Rudolf Groner was founder and chief editor o
Journal of Eye Movement Research (JEMR)
�an interdisciplinary open access journal. After becoming emeritus at the University of Bern in 2007 Rudolf Groner is now working together with Marina Groner and former collaborators in a

spin-off Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work * Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gov ...

of his former laboratory
scians Ltd.
focussing on the transfer of fundamental research to applied settings.

Research

From 1970 to 1990 Rudolf Groner's research interests focused on the mathematical modeling of complex cognitive activities by elementary modules. These modules consist of basic perceptual and attentional processes, and the visual information input is measured by parameters of eye fixations. The underlying processes are assumed as the generating and testing of hypotheses. In cooperation with Marina Groner he developed a hypothetico-deductive theory of cognitive activity based on a set of

axioms An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy or ...

from which

probability distribution In probability theory and statistics, a probability distribution is the mathematical function that gives the probabilities of occurrence of different possible outcomes for an experiment. It is a mathematical description of a random phenomenon ...

s of

eye movement Eye movement includes the voluntary or involuntary movement of the eyes. Eye movements are used by a number of organisms (e.g. primates, rodents, flies, birds, fish, cats, crabs, octopus) to fixate, inspect and track visual objects of intere ...

parameters were derived and compared with

empirical data Empirical evidence for a proposition is evidence, i.e. what supports or counters this proposition, that is constituted by or accessible to sense experience or experimental procedure. Empirical evidence is of central importance to the sciences a ...

of measured

eye fixation Fixation or visual fixation is the maintaining of the gaze on a single location. An animal can exhibit visual fixation if it possess a fovea in the anatomy of their eye. The fovea is typically located at the center of the retina and is the poin ...

distributions. In addition to eye tracking data, the same hypothetico-deductive analysis was applied to other behavioral parameters. The distribution of time spent during

problem solving Problem solving is the process of achieving a goal by overcoming obstacles, a frequent part of most activities. Problems in need of solutions range from simple personal tasks (e.g. how to turn on an appliance) to complex issues in business an ...

and the probability of erroneous solutions could be predicted by one and the same model that assumes minimal short term memory load which, however, must be compensated by extensive visual scanning of available information from the environment. Groner, Walder & Groner and Menz & Groner extended

Lawrence Stark Lawrence W. Stark (February 21, 1926 – October 22, 2004) was an American neurologist and a recognized authority in the use of engineering analysis to characterize neurological systems. He was a longtime professor of physiological optics and eng ...

’s concept of scanpaths to two different classes of scanning processes: local scanpaths which are assumed to operate on the perceptual input bottom-up on a narrow time scale, and global scanpaths driven by cognitive processes top-down and operating on an extended time scale. In a series of experiments they demonstrated the relation of basic visual processes to eye movement control. More recently Groner and his colleagues explored new ways of applying

eye tracking Eye tracking is the process of measuring either the point of gaze (where one is looking) or the motion of an eye relative to the head. An eye tracker is a device for measuring eye positions and eye movement. Eye trackers are used in research ...

usability Usability can be described as the capacity of a system to provide a condition for its users to perform the tasks safely, effectively, and efficiently while enjoying the experience. In software engineering, usability is the degree to which a soft ...

research. In another line of research, Rudolf Groner, Marina Groner and Walter F. Bischof investigated the interdisciplinary aspects and the historical roots of heuristic thinking and applied the distinction between

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for performing ...

ic versus heuristic approaches as a cognitive style variable assessed and validated by a questionnaire.Groner, R., & Groner, M. (1991). Heuristische versus algorithmische Orientierung als Dimension des individuellen kognitiven Stils. In: K. Grawe, N. Semmer, R. Hänni (Hrsg.), Über die richtige Art, Psychologie zu betreiben. Göttingen: Hogrefe

Selected publications

*Groner, R. (1978). Hypothesen im Denkprozess. Grundlagen einer verallgemeinerten Theorie auf der Basis elementarer Informationsverarbeitung. Bern, Stuttgart & Wien: Huber. *Groner, R., & Groner, M. (1982). Towards a hypothetico-deductive theory of cognitive activity. In R. Groner & P. Fraisse (Eds.), Cognition and eye movements. Amsterdam: North Holland. *Groner, R., Groner, M., & Bischof, W.F. (1983). Methods of heuristics. Hillsdale N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. *Groner, R., & Groner, M. (1983). A stochastic hypothesis testing model for multi-term series problems, based on eye fixations. In Groner, R., Menz, C., Fisher, D., & Monty, R.A. (Eds.). Eye movements and psychological functions: International views. Hillsdale N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum. *Groner, R., Walder, F., & Groner, M. (1984). Looking at faces: Local and global aspects of scanpaths. In A.G. Gale & F. Johnson (Eds.), Theoretical and applied aspects of eye movement research. Amsterdam: North Holland. *Menz, C., & Groner, R. (1985). The effects of stimulus characteristics, task requirements and individual differences on scanning patterns. In R. Groner, G.W. McConkie & Ch. Menz (Eds.), Eye movements and human information processing. Amsterdam: North Holland. *Groner, R., & Groner, M. T. (1989). Attention and eye movement control: an overview. ''European Archives of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences'', ''239''(1), 9-16. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF0173973
PMID 2676541
* Groner, R., Groner, M. T., Bischof, W. F., & Di Lollo, V. (1990). On the relation between metacontrast masking and suppression of visible persistence. ''Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 16''(2), 381–390. https://doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.16.2.38
PMID 2142206
* Groner, R., & Groner, M. (1991). Heuristische versus algorithmische Orientierung als Dimension des individuellen kognitiven Stils. In K. Grawe, N. Semmer, R. Hänni (Hrsg.), Über die richtige Art, Psychologie zu betreiben. Göttingen: Hogrefe. *Wright, S. F., & Groner, R. (Eds.). (1993). Facets of dyslexia and its remediation. Elsevier. * Groner, M. T., Groner, R., & Von Mühlenen, A. (2008). The effect of spatial frequency content on parameters of eye movements. ''Psychological Research'', ''72''(6), 601-608. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-008-0167-
PMID 18855008
* Siegenthaler, E. & Groner, R. (2009). Multifunctional usability analysis and its application to the comparison of eBooks with conventional books. In Liversedge, J.P. (Ed.). Abstracts of the Fifteenth European Conference on Eye Movements, Southampton, August 24–26, 2009. ''Journal of Eye Movement Research'', 3, special issue, 70. * Groner, R., & Siegenthaler, E. (2009). Improving the usability of eLearning tools: The Multifunctional Analysis and its application in distance teaching. Proceedings of the ICDE/EADTU Conference in Maastricht, June 2009. * Siegenthaler, E., Wurtz, P., & Groner, R. (2010). Improving the usability of e-book readers. ''Journal of Usability Studies'', ''6''(1), 25-38
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* Siegenthaler, E., Wurtz, P., Bergamin, P., & Groner, R. (2011). Comparing reading processes on e-ink displays and print. ''Displays, 32''(5), 268–273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.displa.2011.05.005 *Siegenthaler, E., Costela, F. M., McCamy, M. B., Di Stasi, L. L., Otero‐Millan, J., Sonderegger, Groner, R, Macknik, S. & Martinez‐Conde, S. (2014). Task difficulty in mental arithmetic affects microsaccadic rates and magnitudes. ''European Journal of Neuroscience'', ''39''(2), 287-294. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.1239
PMID 24438491
*Burch, M., Chuang, L. L., Duchowski, A., Weiskopf, D., & Groner, R. (2018). Eye tracking and visualization: Introduction to the special thematic issue. ''Journal of Eye Movement Research'', ''10''(5)1. https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.10.5.
PMID 33828670PMCID PMC7141078
*Fink, L. K., Lange, E. B., & Groner, R. (2019). The application of eye-tracking in music research. ''Journal of Eye Movement Research'', ''11''(2)1. https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.11.2.
PMID 33828684PMCID PMC7725399
*Martinez-Conde, S., Engbert, R., & Groner, R. (2020). Microsaccades: Empirical research and methodological advances - Introduction to part 1 of the thematic special issue. ''Journal of Eye Movement Research'', ''12''(6)1. https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.6.
PMID 33828747PMCID PMC7944665
*Krueger, E., Schneider, A., Sawyer, B. D., Chavaillaz, A., Sonderegger, A., Groner, R., & Hancock, P. A. (2019). Microsaccades distinguish looking from seeing. ''Journal of Eye Movement Research'', ''12''(6)2. https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.6.
PMID 33828752PMCID PMC7962679
*Jaschinski, W., & Groner, R. (2020). Vergence eye movements: From basic science to clinical application - Foreword to the special issue. ''Journal of Eye Movement Research'', ''12''(4)0. https://doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.4.
PMID 33828745PMCID PMC7881834

References

External links

Journal of Eye Movement Research
{{DEFAULTSORT:Groner, Rudolf Living people 1942 births People from Glarus Swiss psychologists University of Vienna alumni University of Bern faculty