BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

    Culture modulates face scanning during dyadic social interactions

    Haensel, Jennifer and Danvers, Matthew and Ishikawa, M. and Itakura, S. and Tucciarelli, Raffaele and Smith, Tim J. and Senju, Atsushi (2020) Culture modulates face scanning during dyadic social interactions. Scientific Reports 10 (1958), ISSN 2045-2322.

    [img] Text
    30276.pdf - Author's Accepted Manuscript
    Restricted to Repository staff only

    Download (393kB)
    [img]
    Preview
    Text
    30276a.pdf - Published Version of Record
    Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

    Download (1MB) | Preview

    Abstract

    Recent studies have revealed significant cultural modulations on face scanning strategies, thereby challenging the notion of universality in face perception. Current findings are based on screen-based paradigms, which offer high degrees of experimental control, but lack critical characteristics common to social interactions (e.g., social presence, dynamic visual saliency), and complementary approaches are required. The current study used head-mounted eye tracking techniques to investigate the visual strategies for face scanning in British/Irish (in the UK) and Japanese adults (in Japan) who were engaged in dyadic social interactions with a local research assistant. We developed novel computational data pre-processing tools and data-driven analysis techniques based on Monte Carlo permutation testing. The results revealed significant cultural differences in face scanning during social interactions for the first time, with British/Irish participants showing increased mouth scanning and the Japanese group engaging in greater eye and central face looking. Both cultural groups further showed more face orienting during periods of listening relative to speaking, and during the introduction task compared to a storytelling game, thereby replicating previous studies testing Western populations. Altogether, these findings point to the significant role of postnatal social experience in specialised face perception and highlight the adaptive nature of the face processing system.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
    Depositing User: Administrator
    Date Deposited: 12 Dec 2019 14:40
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:56
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/30276

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    82Downloads
    6 month trend
    271Hits

    Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

    Archive Staff Only (login required)

    Edit/View Item Edit/View Item