Mary Hegarty is an Irish–American psychologist who is a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
She has demonstrated that eye fixation data can be used to understand mechanical reasoning (e.g. interpretation of graphics).
[3] Eye-fixation data allows Hegarty to follow the processes involved in understanding diagrams and maps.
[4] Hegarty is interested in individual differences in navigation, learning the layout of environments, mental rotation and taking perspective.
[5][6] She has investigated why people with great spatial abilities are more successful in STEM-related disciplines.