A Brief History of Eye Movement Research

This chapter will provide a brief overview of the rich and fascinating history underpinning contemporary eye-movement research. Starting with the early work by Kepler and the largely observational investigations of eye-movements conducted by others, we will cover the development of eye-movement research in terms of the machinery used for early investigations, such as crude measurements using plaster of Paris, as well as set out some of the first instances of phenomena which are still keeping scientists occupied today. Hopefully, by the end of this chapter, you will appreciate the broad history behind some of the topics covered throughout the rest of this book.