CHARACTERISTICS OF EYE MOVEMENTS WHEN COMPARING IMAGES OF STRONG AND WEAK EMOTIONAL EXPRESSIONS

Abstract

In previous studies of facial expression perception, integral measures of eye movements were calculated for selected regions of interest or for regular time intervals. Combining the analysis of free verbalizations and the analysis of eye movements in one study makes it possible to obtain and compare the integral characteristics of eye movements for different types of verbalizations. Participants compared 13 images of strong and weakly expressed emotional expressions from the VEPEL database. Comparisons were made on a scale from 1 to 9 with free descriptions of the differences between the images. At the same time, eye movements were recorded. For time intervals corresponding to the selected verbal units, integral integrated indicators of eye movements were calculated: number of fixations, average duration of fixations (ms), average pupil dilation (mm), total duration of fixations (ms), path length as the sum of distances between the centers of fixations (px), coverage area (Convex Hull) as the area of a polygon covering the viewing area, the vertices of which are the centers of fixations (px2). The study involved 50 Moscow university students: 42 women and 8 men aged 18 to 39 years (m=22.5, sd=4.8). Differences between different types of verbal units are described. When justifying the assessment of similarity between images, subjects first of all resort to the “easiest” descriptions, characterized by a smaller amount of viewing of images. At the same time, the “complexity” of “heavy” descriptions, characterized by a large volume of examination, is compensated by a reduction in the duration of individual visual fixations. When solving a comparison problem, subjects strive to provide an acceptable level of justification for this assessment from their point of view, while avoiding constructs that lead to an increase in the complexity of the problem being solved. If it is necessary to use “complex” constructs, some reduction in cognitive load is achieved by reducing the duration of visual fixations.