Participant Grouping

Participant grouping in GazePlotter allows you to logically organize participants into distinct groups for rigorous comparative eye-tracking analysis. The grouping interface offers comprehensive management capabilities, including targeted search filtering, bulk participant assignment, and session change tracking.

Accessing the Tool

To create or modify your participant groupings:

1. Click the More options button positioned in the top right corner of any visible plot.
2. Select Setup participant grouping from the contextual pop-up menu.

Executing this action opens the centralized participant grouping modal window.

Group Management

Creating Groups

Adding a new group

• Action: Click the Add group button located at the bottom of the modal.
• Behavior: Instantiates a new underlying grouping entity. It is automatically assigned a sequential default name (e.g., “Group 1”) and appended to your active list.

Modifying Groups

Every created group renders as an individual, expandable accordion item in the interface.

Renaming

• Action: Click directly on the group name text field.
• Behavior: Allows you to type a new customized, descriptive name for your analysis group.

Reordering

• Action: Click the up and down arrows on the group header.
• Behavior: Adjusts the index order of the group within the list.
• Impact: This specific ordering directly dictates the sequence in which groups are rendered in final plots.

Deletion

• Action: Click the trash bin icon.
• Behavior: Permanently destroys the group entity and dissociates all assigned participants.

Assigning Participants

Clicking the header layer of any group expands it to reveal direct participant assignment options.

Individual Assignment

The expanded view populates a comprehensive list of all participants present in your current dataset.

• Add: Check the box adjacent to a target participant’s name to link them to the group.
• Remove: Uncheck the box to break the link and remove them.

Bulk Operations

You can leverage bulk operations to efficiently assign or unassign entire cohorts of participants simultaneously.

Select Visible

• Action: Click the Select visible button.
• Behavior: Links all participants currently rendered in the list to the selected group.

Deselect Visible

• Action: Click the Deselect visible button.
• Behavior: Dissociates all currently rendered participants from the selected group.

Search Filtering

When working with substantial participant counts, utilize the Search participants field to narrow down the visible list.

• Filtering: The search engine filters participants continuously based on their current displayed name.
• Visibility: When a search filter is actively applied, only matching participant names are rendered in the list.
• Analytics: A dynamic summary text below the active list calculates exactly how many participants are currently hidden by your search parameters.

Utilizing Search for Bulk Operations: The search filter and bulk operations are explicitly designed to be used in tandem. If your goal is to group all participants possessing “Control” in their displayed name:

1. Search for the exact string “Control”.
2. Click Select visible to bind them all instantly.
3. If you subsequently clear the search field, those “Control” participants remain firmly assigned to the group while you search for completely different cohorts.

Session State Tracking

As you execute changes within the modal, GazePlotter’s engine continuously tracks whether your current state differs from the initial load state.

Saving Modifications

• Action: Click the Save button.
• Behavior: Commits and applies all grouping modifications system-wide across your workspace.
• Validation: The Save button is only active when uncommitted changes exist.

Discarding Modifications

• Action: Click the Discard Changes button.
• Behavior: Immediately reverts all participant groups back to their exact state prior to opening the modal window. All unsaved interactions are discarded.