Eye Mind Wander Dataset

Eye Mind Wander (EYEMW) Dataset Competition


Overview

The Affect, Cognition, and Computation (ACC) Lab at the University of Minnesota and the Penn Center for Learning Analytics at the University of Pennsylvania are pleased to announce the Eye, Mind, Wander Data Competition. This competition provides participants with anonymized observational data capturing learners’ eye gaze and associated behavioral measures. The dataset contains in-situ thought probes (task-unrelated thought, freely-moving thought, valence, arousal, etc.), with the goal of assessing cognitive/affective constructs “in the moment” during learning. The dataset contains information from a large set of diverse learners (spanning multiple ages, contexts, races, and geographical locations) during multiple forms of learning, such as reading, video, and VR.

Entrants are challenged to leverage this dataset to produce novel scientific insights into attention, cognition, engagement, or other scientific areas. The contribution can be geared toward learning science, cognitive science, and/or learning analytics.

Competition Data

  • The Eye Mind Wander dataset collection comprises eye-tracking recordings, timestamps, and probe responses.
  • Entrants to the competition can use any of the datasets in the collection — or multiple datasets from the collection — in the research the entry is based upon. No external datasets (except those previously processed by LLMs or other pre-trained models) may be used.
  • Additional metadata (e.g., reading proficiency measures, text difficulty levels, and demographic data) are also available for some datasets.
  • All data within the database is fully deidentified and in compliance with IRB and privacy regulations.

Competition Methods

  • Participants may use any valid and rigorous analysis methods.
  • Submissions will be judged in part on methodological rigor, but a range of methods are accepted, including but not limited to:
    • Statistics
    • Analytics, Data Mining, and Machine Learning
    • Quantitative Ethnography
    • Analysis with Pre-Trained Models, Including Large Language Models

Goals and Suggested Directions

Although you may pursue any research question that engages with the dataset, potential areas of inquiry include:
  • Predicting mind wandering episodes from eye-tracking data.
  • Investigating reading comprehension strategies and how they relate to inattention.
  • Developing new metrics or algorithms that identify attention, mind wandering, or boredom in real time.
  • Investigating the relationship between measures collected in studies in more complex ways
  • Investigating the antecedents of mind wandering episodes
  • Investigating the factors differentiating students who do and do not mind wander

Submission Requirements

  • Format: Short paper describing your scientific advance. There is no strict page limit or formatting requirement—participants may choose the style (e.g., APA, ACM, etc.) or even use bullet points. The core consideration should be clear and effective communication.
  • Content: Your entry should detail (1) the research question/problem, (2) methods/analyses, (3) results/insights, and (4) implications and potential impact, including advances over prior work. This exact order is recommended (though not required), to facilitate judging.
  • Supplementary Code and Materials: While not strictly required, we encourage sharing analysis protocols (e.g., Jupyter notebooks, scripts) in a public repository.
  • Submission Link: To be announced

Evaluation Criteria

Submissions will be judged on the following:
  • Technical Rigor: Soundness of methods, correctness of analyses, and reproducibility.
  • Scientific Importance: Novelty, significance, and potential for advancing broader scientific understanding of reading, attention, cognition, engagement, or other fields.
  • Clarity: Clarity and understandability of writeup.

The judging panel will be composed of neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists, and learning analytics researchers. Given the interdisciplinary nature of the judging panel, your scientific contribution should be made clear to a range of experts. Additional experts may be consulted for any submission requiring specific methodological knowledge or scientific claims beyond the committee’s expertise.

Prizes

  • First Place (1 winner): US$5,000

Important Dates

  • Competition Launch: Winter 2025
  • Submission Deadline: April 15, 2026 (11:59 PM Anywhere on Earth)
  • Announcement of Winners: Early Summer 2026

Organizers

This competition is jointly organized by:
  • Affect, Cognition, and Computation (ACC) Lab, University of Minnesota
  • Penn Center for Learning Analytics, University of Pennsylvania
  • Adelaide University

Contact

For inquiries or additional details, please contact us:
We look forward to your contributions to advancing the science of reading, attention, engagement, and mind wandering!

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