The role of task-irrelevant configural and featural face processing in the selective attention to gaze

IF 2.7 3区医学 Q1 BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Biological Psychology Pub Date : 2025-05-29 DOI:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2025.109060

Enguang Chen , Chengdong Liu , Xinyue Zhang, Kuan Wang, Hailing Wang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

In face processing theories, it is commonly proposed that structural and social information of faces are processed through different pathways. Recent research suggests that the type of face processing (i.e., configural/featural) can influence how social information is processed. However, the influence of face processing type on the perception of gaze, a crucial social cue, remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate how task-irrelevant face processing influences attentional selection to gaze. Using a visual search paradigm, the study examined participants' ability to detect direct and averted gaze in arrays of configural or featural faces. The rectangular array was adopted in Experiment 1 and the diamond array was adopted in Experiment 2. Behavioral results of two experiments showed that detecting averted gaze among direct gazes was more efficient than the reverse, particularly in featural faces. The ERP findings showed that task-irrelevant face processing types influence attention selection to gaze in a rectangular array (Experiment 1), but not in a diamond array (Experiment 2). Averted gaze captures more attention than direct gaze in both configural and featural processing when presented in the right visual field, while direct gaze in featural processing exhibits more attentional suppression than averted gaze in the left visual field. Overall, this study underscores the dynamic interplay of different types of information during face perception.

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任务无关的构形和特征脸加工在凝视选择性注意中的作用。

在人脸加工理论中，通常认为人脸的结构信息和社会信息是通过不同的途径加工的。最近的研究表明，面部处理的类型（即，结构/特征）可以影响社会信息的处理方式。然而，面部加工类型对凝视感知的影响尚不清楚，凝视是一个重要的社会线索。本研究旨在探讨与任务无关的面部加工如何影响凝视的注意选择。该研究使用视觉搜索范式，测试了参与者在一组构形脸或特征脸中检测直视和回避凝视的能力。实验1采用矩形阵列，实验2采用菱形阵列。两个实验的行为结果表明，在直视者中检测转移的目光比反向的更有效，尤其是在特征面部。ERP结果表明，任务无关的面部加工类型影响凝视在矩形阵列上的注意选择（实验1），但不影响在菱形阵列上的注意选择（实验2）。在右视野中，回避凝视在构形和特征处理中都比直接凝视捕获更多的注意，而在特征处理中，直接凝视比回避凝视在左视野中表现出更多的注意抑制。总的来说，这项研究强调了不同类型的信息在面部感知过程中的动态相互作用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Biological Psychology 医学-行为科学

CiteScore

4.20

自引率

11.50%

发文量

146

审稿时长

3 months

期刊介绍： Biological Psychology publishes original scientific papers on the biological aspects of psychological states and processes. Biological aspects include electrophysiology and biochemical assessments during psychological experiments as well as biologically induced changes in psychological function. Psychological investigations based on biological theories are also of interest. All aspects of psychological functioning, including psychopathology, are germane. The Journal concentrates on work with human subjects, but may consider work with animal subjects if conceptually related to issues in human biological psychology.