Li Juan, Liu Xiping, Yu Bin, Tang Weihai, Liu Xinchun
Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, China.
Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China.
Front Psychol. 2020 Oct 2;11:566482. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.566482. eCollection 2020.
Although dot-probe paradigms have been widely used in previous studies to investigate the attentional bias of perfectionists, the exact characteristics of this bias are still unclear.
In this study, eye-tracking technology was used to compare the attentional patterns of high perfectionists (HP) and low perfectionists (LP). The HP and LP groups ( = 39 vs 34) completed a visual attention task in which they observed perfect vs imperfect picture pairs, during which their eye movements (EMs) were recorded automatically using an EM tracking system.
Both the HP and LP groups showed an overall attentional bias toward imperfect pictures, as indicated by the criteria of initial visual attention orientation and attentional maintenance. There were no significant differences between the HP and LP groups during the early and middle phases of attention: both groups exhibited a longer total fixation duration on imperfect pictures than on perfect pictures. However, during the late phase of attention, the participants in the HP group diverted their attention away from the imperfect pictures and began to pay more attention to the perfect pictures. By contrast, the participants in the LP group consistently exhibited longer fixation times for imperfect pictures than the HP group during the entire duration of the stimulus.
These findings indicate that the participants in the HP group tended to avoid imperfect stimuli during the late phase of attention; this may indicate that avoidance plays an important role in maintaining perfectionism. This study also shows that eye-tracking is a useful methodology for measuring the attentional biases of perfectionists.
尽管点探测范式在以往研究中被广泛用于探究完美主义者的注意偏向，但这种偏向的确切特征仍不清楚。
在本研究中，使用眼动追踪技术比较高完美主义者（HP）和低完美主义者（LP）的注意模式。HP组和LP组（n = 39对34）完成了一项视觉注意任务，在该任务中他们观察完美与不完美的图片对，在此期间使用眼动追踪系统自动记录他们的眼动（EMs）。
根据初始视觉注意方向和注意维持的标准，HP组和LP组都表现出对不完美图片的总体注意偏向。在注意的早期和中期，HP组和LP组之间没有显著差异：两组在不完美图片上的总注视持续时间都比在完美图片上更长。然而，在注意的后期，HP组的参与者将注意力从不完美图片上转移开，开始更多地关注完美图片。相比之下，在整个刺激持续时间内，LP组的参与者对不完美图片的注视时间始终比HP组更长。
这些发现表明，HP组的参与者在注意后期倾向于避免不完美刺激；这可能表明回避在维持完美主义中起重要作用。本研究还表明，眼动追踪是测量完美主义者注意偏向的一种有用方法。
