Abstract

Regions of social importance (i.e., other people) attract attention in real world scenes, but it is unclear how automatic this bias is and how it might interact with other guidance factors. To investigate this, we recorded eye movements while participants were explicitly instructed to avoid looking at one of two objects in a scene (either a person or a non-social object). The results showed that, while participants could follow these instructions, they still made errors (especially on the first saccade). Crucially, there were about twice as many erroneous looks towards the person than there were towards the other object. This indicates that it is hard to suppress the prioritization of social information during scene viewing, with implications for how quickly and automatically this information is perceived and attended to.

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.