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I am writing an eye tracking paper that involve both "samples" as used in signal theory (e.g "the sampling rate was of 50 samples per second) and statistical samples.

A reviewer is suggesting that I change the terminology to avoid confusion between the two uses of the term sample. What terminology change could I make to meet this request? So far, the only plausible change I could think of was:

  • eye tracking samples would become "data points"
  • statistical samples would remain "samples".
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  • $\begingroup$ "50 measurements per second" would be fine for me, but what about your readers? $\endgroup$
    – Nick Cox
    Commented Jun 23, 2020 at 6:09
  • $\begingroup$ Could work, but we are already using "measurement" for eye movement measurements, e.g. fixation duration, etc. $\endgroup$
    – GuillaumeL
    Commented Jun 23, 2020 at 17:35
  • $\begingroup$ Different meanings of "sample" is one of several examples agt stats.stackexchange.com/questions/202879/… I don't have experience of ambiguity biting hard. You could add a footnote about sample scientific sense and sample statistical sense, if that suits your style and the journal's style. $\endgroup$
    – Nick Cox
    Commented Jun 23, 2020 at 18:39
  • $\begingroup$ This sounds to me like a kind of panel data sample, but I don't know if that term is common in your field. $\endgroup$
    – dimitriy
    Commented Jun 23, 2020 at 18:45

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Can you use eye tracking observations?

This way, if you have a single study outcome, you can say things like: For our study outcome, we collected 50 eye tracking observations per second per study subject for a total of 120 seconds, etc.

If you have multiple study outcomes, you can clarify that: For each outcome variable, we collected 50 eye tracking observations per second per study subject for a total of 120 seconds, etc.

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