Scanpath

A scanpath shows where one participant looked on a stimulus, and in what order. Each fixation is a circle at its position, sized by its duration, and a line joins consecutive fixations. When the stimulus has reference media attached, the image or video is drawn behind the gaze data and its pixel size defines the coordinate space.

Scanpath card in the workspace: fixations of participant Astrid drawn over a frame of the Promo video stimulus, with the playback bar.


Scope	One stimulus, one participant
Input	Fixations with X/Y coordinates; the stimulus’s reference image or video when attached
Metric Library	Not used: the plot draws the fixations themselves

Try it: The demo workspace opens with the scanpath of participant Astrid over the Promo video, ready to play.

When to Use It

Spatial trajectory: see where a participant looked and trace the path they took through the stimulus.
Duration density: find regions of sustained visual processing by their larger fixation circles.
Gaze over video: play the scanpath with the video to see what was on screen at each fixation.
Stimulus alignment: with reference media attached, check whether fixations land on the expected regions of the image or video, and correct offsets with the media alignment.

Reading the Plot

Axes: X and Y in gaze coordinates (the media’s pixels when it is attached). Y grows downward, as on screen.
Circles: fixations, sized by duration.
Color: by default (Time gradient), a fixation’s color shows when it began. The key at the bottom right maps the gradient to Onset time in seconds.
Numbers and lines: the fixation order. Where labels would overlap, the later fixation keeps its number.
Play bar: below the plot, see Playback.

Add a Scanpath

Load your data: drop the files anywhere on the page, or use Import. See Uploading Data.
In the rail on the left, click Add Visualization, then Gaze behavior > Scanpath. When another plot is selected, the new one opens on its stimulus.
The pane on the right opens with the plot’s settings. Pick the Stimulus and the Participant.

To move, resize, duplicate, or remove the card, see Plot Manipulation.

Settings

Select the card to open its settings in the Pane (a bottom sheet on mobile). The sections, in pane order:

Stimulus

Select the stimulus whose gaze data to plot. If the stimulus has reference media attached, it is drawn as the plot background.

Edit stimuli & selections: Opens the Stimuli Library to rename stimuli, build stimulus selections, and attach reference media.

Participant

Select the individual participant whose gaze trajectory you want to visualize. The Scanpath plot displays one participant’s scanpath at a time.

Edit participants & selections: Opens the Participant Library to rename or reorder participants.

Visualization

Fixation color: Time gradient samples each fixation’s fill from a color scale by its onset within the shown fixations’ time span; Solid uses one color, picked below. With Time gradient, the color scale picker below sets the gradient stops.
Background: How the stimulus image or video frame is drawn: Full color (default), Grayscale, Dimmed grayscale, or None (white within the stimulus outline). Shown only when the stimulus has an image or video.
Show fixation order line: Check to render connecting line segments (saccades) between sequential fixations.
Show fixation numbers: Check to print sequence indices (e.g. 1, 2, 3…) next to each fixation circle. Where labels would overlap, the later fixation keeps its number.
Playback:
- Trail length (ms): During playback, only fixations that began within the last N milliseconds stay on screen, fading as they age. Leave it empty (All) to keep everything since the start.
- Speed: Playback rate relative to recording time, from 0.25x to 2x. On a shared clock, the plot that started playback sets the rate.
- Play with other plots of this stimulus: On by default. Every scanpath of the stimulus plays on one shared clock, and its time-axis plots show the playback time. Uncheck to play this plot on its own.

Time range

Start / ms / End / ms (0 = Auto): Limits the scanpath to fixations overlapping this recording-time range. Fixation numbers stay those of the whole recording, and the play bar spans the range.

Export

Located at the bottom of the Pane:

Download plot: Opens the Figure Export dialog to save the 2D scanpath plot as a PNG or JPG. Exports render the plot as it shows in the workspace: the paused moment (or the rest moment) with its trail and, on a video, its frame. Pausing or releasing the play bar saves the moment with the workspace, so it also survives a reload and is undoable.
Download segments: Opens the Segmented Data export preset to this plot’s stimulus and participant, over whole recordings.

Playback

A control bar below the plot animates the scanpath over recording time: fixations appear as their onset passes, and each circle inflates over its own dwell. With a video reference medium the video plays in step with the clock, so frames and fixations stay synchronized; set Video starts at in the media’s settings when the video does not start with the recording.

Play / Pause: Also Space while the pointer is over the plot.
Show all fixations: Returns to the full static picture. A finished run holds its last frame until you press it.
Seek bar: The filled part is the trail, the fixations currently on screen. Drag its left edge to change the trail length; drop it at the start for All.
Time readout: Seconds with tenths under a minute, minutes and seconds beyond.

Synchronized time

Scanpaths and Fixation Heatmaps of a stimulus play on one shared clock, so scanpaths of different participants move in lockstep and a heatmap of the group builds up alongside them. While it plays, the Scarf Plot (Absolute timeline), AOI Timeline, and Metric Timeline of the same stimulus show the playback time with the same dashed line they use for hovering, and the scanpath marks the fixation in progress.

Hovering works both ways without playback: hovering a fixation marks its time on those plots, and hovering them marks the fixation in progress at that time on the scanpath.

With Time gradient coloring, the colors and the key stay fixed during playback: a fixation’s color always means when it began, and opacity shows its age inside the trail.

A compact key at the bottom right of the plot, on the X axis title row, maps the gradient to time: Onset, the earliest onset in seconds, the gradient, and the latest. Figure exports include it. On a plot too narrow to fit it beside the axis title, the key is omitted.

Data Notes

Custom CSV time series: That layout splits rows by AOI changes, so each plotted “fixation” is an AOI run located at its first sample. For a true scanpath, upload a segmented layout with one row per fixation. See Custom CSV.

Scarf Plot: the AOI sequence of every participant over time, without positions.
Fixation Heatmap: fixations of a participant selection pooled into one map, without order.
Scanpath Similarity: how alike the AOI sequences of participant pairs are.