Monitoring eye movements while searching for affective faces

Michael G. Reynolds, John D. Eastwood, Marita Partanen, Alexandra Frischen, Daniel Smilek

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A single experiment is reported in which we provide a novel analysis of eye movements during visual search to disentangle the contributions of unattended guidance and focal target processing to visual search performance. This technique is used to examine the controversial claim that unattended affective faces can guide attention during search. Results indicated that facial expression influences how efficiently the target was fixated for the first time as a function of set size. However, affective faces did not influence how efficiently the target was identified as a function of set size after it was first fixated. These findings suggest that, in the present context, facial expression can influence search before the target is attended and that the present measures are able to distinguish between the guidance of attention by targets and the processing of targets within the focus of attention.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)318-333
Number of pages16
JournalVisual Cognition
Volume17
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009
Externally publishedYes

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