scholarly journals Visual avoidance of faces in socially anxious individuals: The moderating effect of type of social situation

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 204380872198962
Author(s):  
Jiemiao Chen ◽  
Esther van den Bos ◽  
Sara L.M. Velthuizen ◽  
P. Michiel Westenberg

Patients with social anxiety disorder appear to display aberrant gaze behavior across a variety of social situations. In contrast, the gaze behavior of high socially anxious (HSA) individuals from the community seems to depend on the type of situation and the aberration might be limited to gaze avoidance. This study investigated the differential effect of social situation—a face-viewing task and a public speaking task—on gaze behavior in HSA participants from a community sample. Participants’ eye movements were tracked using a wearable eye tracker. Two aspects of gaze behavior were measured: (1) gaze avoidance was assessed by total fixation time, fixation counts, and mean fixation time on faces; (2) hypervigilance was assessed by scan path length and mean distance between fixations. The results confirmed a moderating effect of task on total (though not mean) fixation time on faces and fixation counts. Compared to low socially anxious participants, HSA participants looked less frequently (hence shorter) at the audience during the speech only. This indicates that visual avoidance in HSA individuals does not occur by default, but only when risks of (negative) social consequences are perceived. High and low socially anxious participants showed no difference in hypervigilance in either situation.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Michael Vesker ◽  
Daniela Bahn ◽  
Christina Kauschke ◽  
Gudrun Schwarzer

Abstract Social interactions often require the simultaneous processing of emotions from facial expressions and speech. However, the development of the gaze behavior used for emotion recognition, and the effects of speech perception on the visual encoding of facial expressions is less understood. We therefore conducted a word-primed face categorization experiment, where participants from multiple age groups (six-year-olds, 12-year-olds, and adults) categorized target facial expressions as positive or negative after priming with valence-congruent or -incongruent auditory emotion words, or no words at all. We recorded our participants’ gaze behavior during this task using an eye-tracker, and analyzed the data with respect to the fixation time toward the eyes and mouth regions of faces, as well as the time until participants made the first fixation within those regions (time to first fixation, TTFF). We found that the six-year-olds showed significantly higher accuracy in categorizing congruently primed faces compared to the other conditions. The six-year-olds also showed faster response times, shorter total fixation durations, and faster TTFF measures in all primed trials, regardless of congruency, as compared to unprimed trials. We also found that while adults looked first, and longer, at the eyes as compared to the mouth regions of target faces, children did not exhibit this gaze behavior. Our results thus indicate that young children are more sensitive than adults or older children to auditory emotion word primes during the perception of emotional faces, and that the distribution of gaze across the regions of the face changes significantly from childhood to adulthood.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 113-123
Author(s):  
Gabriel Palmeira Paschoalino ◽  
Gabriel Kuga ◽  
Gisele Chiozi Gotardi ◽  
Rafael Simão ◽  
Fabio Augusto Barbieri ◽  
...  

During curve negotiation, drivers tend to look at the tangent point of the curve (TP) to control steering. There is a lack of evidence on how experiences of natural and simulated driving are related. The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of experience in natural driving on gaze behavior of racing videogame players. Additionally, it aimed to identify possible effects of curvature angle on fixation patterns. Twenty video game players composed two groups: drivers-gamers and no-drivers-gamers. Participants had their eye movements recorded while performing three laps racing on a videogame circuit, which had eleven curves. Areas of interest were defined relative to TP: 3 degrees, 10 degrees of visual angle, and Others. Dependent variables were: Number of Fixations and Total Duration of Fixations. Results showed that natural context driving experience did not change the tangent point visual strategy during curve negotiation in a racing videogame environment. All participants spent approximately half of their number of fixations and total fixation time within 10 degrees around the tangent point. Curvature angles modified fixation patterns, causing higher number of fixations and total fixation time during sharper curves.


Author(s):  
Laura J. Bianchi ◽  
Alan Kingstone ◽  
Evan F. Risko

Abstract The effect of cognitive load on social attention was examined across three experiments in a live pedestrian passing scenario (Experiments 1 and 2) and with the same scenario presented as a video (Experiment 3). In all three experiments, the load was manipulated using an auditory 2-back task. While the participant was wearing a mobile eye-tracker, the participant’s fixation behavior toward a confederate was recorded and analyzed based on temporal proximity from the confederate (near or far) and the specific regions of the confederate being observed (i.e., head or body). In Experiment 1 we demonstrated an effect of cognitive load such that there was a lower proportion of fixations and time spent fixating toward the confederate in the load condition. A similar pattern of results was found in Experiment 2 when a within-subject design was used. In Experiment 3, which employed a less authentic social situation (i.e., video), a similar effect of cognitive load was observed. Collectively, these results suggest attentional resources play a central role in social attentional behaviors in both authentic (real-world) and less authentic (video recorded) situations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-221
Author(s):  
António Duarte Santos ◽  
Nelson Tavares da Silva ◽  
Guilherme Castela

Summary The latest global economic and financial crisis has had adverse social consequences in many areas, including income and the social situation of households and their living conditions, especially when the housing phenomenon is addressed. The reality of this uncertainty has made the study of the housing phenomenon even more relevant, in particular from the perspective of an analysis of its evolution. In this context, we revisit EUROSTAT’s databases. This analysis was done for twelve Euro Area countries over five years, using the HJ-BIPLOT method developed by Galindo (1986). This multidimensional approach identified and represented twelve Eurozone sample countries in latent constructs of reduced dimensionality related to the housing policy problem. The simultaneous factorial representation identified (a) the most relevant variables to characterize these countries, (b) their trajectories during the period in analysis, and (c) the relations between variables, between countries, and between variables and countries. This approach also identified the most significant factors contributing to the countries' performance. This methodological approach can be useful in housing research, when studying data of a multivariate nature, and is also, by its visual interpretation, a potential tool for producing richer information not only for academia but also for policy makers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Shoushuo Wang ◽  
Zhigang Du ◽  
Fangtong Jiao ◽  
Libo Yang ◽  
Yudan Ni

This study aims to investigate the impact of the urban undersea tunnel longitudinal slope on the visual characteristics of drivers. 20 drivers were enrolled to conduct the real vehicle test of the urban undersea tunnel. First, the data of average fixation time and visual lobe were collected by an eye tracker. The differential significance was tested using the one-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). Then, the difference between the up-and-down slope (direction) factor and the longitudinal slope (percent) factor on the two indexes were analyzed using the two-way repeated measures ANOVA. Second, by constructing a Lorentz model, the impact of the longitudinal slope on the average fixation time and the visual lobe were analyzed. Besides, a three-dimensional model of the longitudinal slope, average fixation time, and visual lobe was quantified. The results showed that the average fixation time and visual lobe under different longitudinal slopes markedly differed when driving on the uphill and downhill sections. The average fixation time and visual lobe under two factors were markedly different. Moreover, with an increase in the longitudinal slope, the average fixation time exhibited a trend of increasing first then decreasing; the visual lobe exhibited a trend of decreasing first and then increasing. The average fixation time reached the minimum and maximum value when the slope was 2.15% and 4.0%, whereas the visual lobe reached the maximum and minimum value when the slope was 2.88% and 4.0%. Overall, the longitudinal slope exerted a great impact on the visual load of the driver.


Nutrients ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steinhauser ◽  
Janssen ◽  
Hamm

Nutrition and health claims are seen as a way of promoting healthy aspects of food. However, the results of previous studies have been contradictory regarding the effect of these claims on purchase. This study aims to achieve a better understanding of how the consumer characteristics ‘nutrition knowledge’ and ‘health motivation’ influence the purchase of products with nutrition and health claims and what role gaze behavior plays. We included gaze behavior in our analysis, as visual attention on the claims is a precondition to its influence on the purchase decision. In a close-to-realistic shopping situation, consumers could choose from three-dimensional orange juice packages labeled with nutrition, health, and taste claims. In total, the sample consisted of 156 consumers. The data were analyzed with a structural equation model (SEM), linking the purchase decision for products with claims to gaze data recorded with a mobile eye tracker and consumer and product-related variables collected via the questionnaire. Results showed that the variables in the SEM explained 31% (8%) of the variance observed in the purchase of products with a nutrition (health) claim. The longer a consumer looked at a specific claim, the more likely the consumer would purchase the respective product. The lower the price and the higher the perceived healthiness and tastiness of the product further heightened its likelihood of being purchased. Interestingly, consumers with higher nutrition knowledge and/or higher health motivation looked longer at the nutrition and health claims; however, these consumer characteristics did not show an effect on the purchase decision. Implications for policy makers and marketers are given.


Author(s):  
Stanisław H. Czyż ◽  
Martin Zvonař ◽  
Zbigniew Borysiuk ◽  
Jiří Nykodým ◽  
Piotr Oleśniewicz

There are a limited number of studies focusing on the mechanisms explaining why variable practice gives an advantage in a novel situation and constant practice in performance in trained conditions. We hypothesized that this may be due to the different gaze behavior that is developed under different conditions. Twenty participants, randomly assigned to two different groups, practiced basketball free throws for three consecutive days, performing 100 throws per day. The constant group (n = 10) practiced at a free throw distance (4.57 m) only. The variable practice group (n = 10) randomly performed 20 shots per five throw distances (3.35, 3.96, 4.57, 5.18, and 5.79 m) on each day, also accumulating 100 shots per day. We analyzed the total gaze fixation duration, a number of fixations, and the average fixation duration on a basketball rim in a pretest and posttest at the 4.57 m distance. We computed a linear mixed model with test (pretest–posttest), group (constant–variable), and test × group interaction in order to analyze the total fixation duration and number of fixations. The average fixation duration was analyzed with a repeated measure two-way ANOVA, with practice conditions as a between-participants factor and test type as a within-participants factor. We found that the total fixation duration increased significantly in the posttest, regardless of the practice conditions (p < 0.001, effect size = 0.504). The number of fixations also increased significantly in the posttest (p = 0.037, effect size = 0.246). The average fixation duration increased in both groups; however, insignificantly. We also did not find any significant differences between groups. Our results suggest that variable and constant practice conditions may lead to the development of similar gaze behavior.


2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 562-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rayson Holly ◽  
E. Parsons Christine ◽  
S. Young Katherine ◽  
Timothy E.E. Goodacre ◽  
Morten L. Kringelbach ◽  
...  

Objective: Early mother-infant interactions are impaired in the context of infant cleft lip and are associated with adverse child psychological outcomes, but the nature of these interaction difficulties is not yet fully understood. The aim of this study was to explore adult gaze behavior and cuteness perception, which are particularly important during early social exchanges, in response to infants with cleft lip, in order to investigate potential foundations for the interaction difficulties seen in this population. Methods: Using an eye tracker, eye movements were recorded as adult participants viewed images of infant faces with and without cleft lip. Participants also rated each infant on a scale of cuteness. Results: Participants fixated significantly longer on the mouths of infants with cleft lip, which occurred at the expense of fixation on eyes. Severity of cleft lip was associated with the strength of fixation bias, with participants looking even longer at the mouths of infants with the most severe clefts. Infants with cleft lip were rated as significantly less cute than unaffected infants. Men rated infants as less cute than women overall but gave particularly low ratings to infants with cleft lip. Conclusions: Results demonstrate that the limited disturbance in infant facial configuration of cleft lip can significantly alter adult gaze patterns and cuteness perception. Our findings could have important implications for early interactions and may help in the development of interventions to foster healthy development in infants with cleft lip.


2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 127-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve R. Makkar ◽  
Jessica R. Grisham

Post-event processing (PEP), the act of engaging in a detailed, self-focused, and negative analysis of a prior social situation, has been hypothesised to contribute to the maintenance of social phobia (Clark & Wells, 1995). In light of this proposal, the present study investigated whether deliberate engagement in PEP as opposed to distraction following a speech task elicits unhelpful effects on emotion, cognition, and behaviour in a subsequent speech task in high and low socially anxious participants. The PEP manipulation instructed participants to focus on the anxious thoughts, images, feelings, and somatic sensations relating to the first speech. Contrary to hypotheses, results demonstrated that engaging in PEP as opposed to distraction led to a number of constructive outcomes such as: increased willingness among low socially anxious participants to give the second speech, a reduction in negative performance appraisals and underestimation of performance among high socially anxious participants, and better self-perceived speech quality irrespective of social anxiety level. However, there were no effects of response condition on anxiety, performance appraisals, observable behaviour, and negative cognitions. The findings underscore the need for additional research identifying the precise contents, construals, and processing modes that distinguish between adaptive and maladaptive forms of PEP.


Author(s):  
Li Zhu ◽  
Gaochao Cui ◽  
Yan Li ◽  
Jianhai Zhang ◽  
Wanzeng Kong ◽  
...  

AbstractWith the popularity of smartphones and the pervasion of mobile apps, people spend more and more time to interact with a diversity of apps on their smartphones, especially for young population. This raises a question: how people allocate attention to interfaces of apps during using them. To address this question, we, in this study, designed an experiment with two sessions (i.e., Session1: browsing original interfaces; Session 2: browsing interfaces after removal of colors and background) integrating with an eyetracking system. Attention fixation durations were recorded by an eye-tracker while participants browsed app interfaces. The whole screen of smartphone was divided into four even regions to explore fixation durations. The results revealed that participants gave significantly longer total fixation duration on the bottom left region compared to other regions in the session (1) Longer total fixation duration on the bottom was preserved, but there is no significant difference between left side and right side in the session2. Similar to the finding of total fixation duration, first fixation duration is also predominantly paid on the bottom area of the interface. Moreover, the skill in the use of mobile phone was quantified by assessing familiarity and accuracy of phone operation and was investigated in the association with the fixation durations. We found that first fixation duration of the bottom left region is significantly negatively correlated with the smartphone operation level in the session 1, but there is no significant correlation between them in the session (2) According to the results of ratio exploration, the ratio of the first fixation duration to the total fixation duration is not significantly different between areas of interest for both sessions. The findings of this study provide insights into the attention allocation during browsing app interfaces and are of implications on the design of app interfaces and advertisements as layout can be optimized according to the attention allocation to maximally deliver information.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document