Abstract
Visual symmetry perception and symmetry preference have been studied extensively. However, less is known about how people spontaneously scan symmetrical stimuli with their eyes. We thus examined spontaneous saccadic eye movements when participants (N = 20) observed patterns with horizontal or vertical mirror reflection. We found that participants tend to make saccades along the axis of reflection and that this oculomotor behaviour was similar during objective classification and subjective evaluation tasks. The axis-scanning behaviour generates a dynamic sequence of novel symmetrical images from a single static stimulus. This could aid symmetry perception and evaluation by enhancing the neural response to symmetry.
Highlights
Visual symmetry perception and symmetry preference have been studied extensively
Participants made more high amplitude saccades into the corner zones. This oculomotor behaviour was broadly similar in objective classification and subjective evaluation tasks
There was no distinct oculomotor signature of aesthetic evaluation, even though our participants had the typical preference for symmetry (Jacobsen & Ho€fel, 2002; Makin et al, 2012; Rentschler et al, 1999)
Summary
Visual symmetry perception and symmetry preference have been studied extensively. less is known about how people spontaneously scan symmetrical stimuli with their eyes. The axis-scanning behaviour generates a dynamic sequence of novel symmetrical images from a single static stimulus This could aid symmetry perception and evaluation by enhancing the neural response to symmetry. Symmetry activates a network of extrastriate visual areas (including the Lateral Occipital Complex) but not V1 or V2 (Sasaki et al, 2005) This extrastriate symmetry response generates an event-related potential called the sustained posterior negativity (SPN; Jacobsen & Ho€fel, 2003; Makin et al, 2016). Muhlenbeck et al (2016) presented pairs of symmetrical and asymmetrical images for 3 seconds and found that adolescents (from industrial and non-industrial societies) fixated the symmetrical option for around 180 ms longer on average This replicates preferential looking towards symmetry in different populations but, again, does not tell us about internal scanning of symmetrical images
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