Differences in Sequential Eye Movement Behavior between Taiwanese and American Viewers.

Yen-Ju Lee,Harold H Greene,Chia W Tsai,Yu J Chou

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00697

Yen-Ju Lee, Harold H Greene + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00697

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Abstract

Knowledge of how information is sought in the visual world is useful for predicting and simulating human behavior. Taiwanese participants and American participants were instructed to judge the facial expression of a focal face that was flanked horizontally by other faces while their eye movements were monitored. The Taiwanese participants distributed their eye fixations more widely than American participants, started to look away from the focal face earlier than American participants, and spent a higher percentage of time looking at the flanking faces. Eye movement transition matrices also provided evidence that Taiwanese participants continually, and systematically shifted gaze between focal and flanking faces. Eye movement patterns were less systematic and less prevalent in American participants. This suggests that both cultures utilized different attention allocation strategies. The results highlight the importance of determining sequential eye movement statistics in cross-cultural research on the utilization of visual context.

Highlights

Western Psychology theories have traditionally assumed universality in human cognitive processes (e.g., Shepard, 2004)
Research by Masuda et al (2008, 2012) suggests that as East Asians try to interpret the facial expressions, they are more likely than Westerners to incorporate the expressions on flanking faces
Previous eye movement data suggest that East Asians do this by starting to look at the background faces earlier (Masuda et al, 2008) and for longer periods (Masuda et al, 2012) than Westerners

Summary

Introduction

Western Psychology theories have traditionally assumed universality in human cognitive processes (e.g., Shepard, 2004). Cross-cultural research has provided exceptions to universality, making it unrealistic to assert that all human groups utilize similar cognitive processing strategies (see Nisbett et al, 2001; Nisbett, 2003; Nisbett and Miyamoto, 2005). If human groups differ in the way they fundamentally process the world, determining the underlying cognitive mechanisms is important for understanding and predicting diverse/international responses to identical situations. Cognitive mechanisms that may be influenced by culture include those involved in attention, information encoding and retrieval, and selective reporting of information about the world.

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