Oculomotor Activity During the Perception of Faces of People, Animals and Objects: the Role of the Emotional Coloring of Stimuli
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Keywords

eye tracking
eye movements
fixations
saccades
visual perception
social scenes
dysphoric stimuli
threatening stimuli
positive stimuli

Abstract

Introduction. Faces are an important aspect of social interaction, containing a wealth of information that facilitates communication. Eye movement studies are relevant for uncovering cognitive mechanisms in various mental disorders. Purpose of the study – analysis of the parameters of oculomotor activity when perceiving social stimuli containing images of people’s faces, and comparing them with the parameters of oculomotor activity when perceiving stimuli containing images of animals or inanimate objects. Methods. The study was carried out using the eye tracking method using the Neurobureau software and hardware complex. Total number of respondents – 60 people (age – 15–45 years). Results. Social scenes containing images of people's faces require more cognitive resources to perceive than images of animals or inanimate objects. This is typical for neutral and positive stimuli, as well as threatening stimuli. However, dysphoric stimuli containing human faces are more often avoided by subjects in a choice situation than dysphoric images of animals or objects. Attention in social scenes is distributed unevenly and focuses on faces. Discussion. Respondents in the 18–30 age group tend to have more experience in analyzing emotions, which may explain more fixations on social stimuli. Avoidance of dysphoric stimuli may be associated with protective mechanisms of the psyche. The results can be interpreted in two ways: 1) social stimuli are evolutionarily more significant for people, so they are analyzed more carefully and for a long time, and 2) the emotional coloring of social situations is not so clear and requires analysis of the characters’ facial expressions.

https://doi.org/10.21702/rpj.2023.4.5
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