Eye Tracking of Visual Attention and Memory for Image and Text Regions in Complex Advertising Under Task-Directed Viewing

Eye tracking can reveal how visual attention is allocated within complex displays, but gaze allocation does not necessarily predict what is later remembered. This exploratory study examined image and text regions in three commercial poster identities, each presented in colour and black-and-white versions. Forty adults viewed the three posters in one presentation condition (n = 20 per condition). Each stimulus was shown for approximately 10 s, and eye movements were recorded with a Tobii Pro X-Series eye tracker at 30 Hz after five-point calibration. Predefined areas of interest (AOIs) separated image and text content. Participant-level Fixation Count (FC) and Total Fixation Duration (TFD), averaged across the three posters, were greater for text than image AOIs (FC: t(39) = 19.46, p < 0.001, dz = 3.08; TFD: t(39) = 20.08, p < 0.001, dz = 3.17). After viewing, participants completed the same 24-item questionnaire. Archived question-level summaries showed descriptively higher accuracy for image-related than text-related items in both conditions (black-and-white: 70.83% vs. 65.83%; colour: 76.67% vs. 70.42%). These findings show a discrepancy between gaze allocation patterns and descriptive memory performance under the present task conditions. They should be interpreted as exploratory associations between gaze behaviour and memory outcomes rather than evidence of a causal attention–memory mechanism.