Saito Toshiki, Motoki Kosuke, Nouchi Rui, Sugiura Motoaki
School of Fundamental Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jan 12;13:1017685. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1017685. eCollection 2022.
Animacy perception-discriminating between animate and inanimate visual stimuli-is the basis for engaging in social cognition and for our survival (e.g., avoiding potential danger). Previous studies indicate that factors in a target, such as the features or motion of a target, enhance animacy perception. However, factors in a perceiver, such as the visual attention of a perceiver to a target, have received little attention from researchers. Research on judgment, decision-making, and neuroeconomics indicates the active role of visual attention in constructing decisions. This study examined the role of visual attention in the perception of animacy by manipulating the exposure time of targets. Among Studies 1a to 1c conducted in this study, participants saw two face illustrations alternately; one of the faces was shown to be longer than the other. The participants chose the face that they considered more animated and rounder. Consequently, longer exposure time toward targets facilitated animacy perception and preference rather than the perception of roundness. Furthermore, preregistered Study 2 examined the underlying mechanisms. The results suggest that mere exposure, rather than orienting behavior, might play a vital role in the perception of animacy. Thus, in the reverse relationship between visual attention and animacy perception, animate objects capture attention-attention results in the perception of animacy.
感知生物性——区分有生命和无生命的视觉刺激——是进行社会认知和我们生存的基础（例如，避免潜在危险）。先前的研究表明，目标中的因素，如目标的特征或运动，会增强对生物性的感知。然而，感知者中的因素，如感知者对目标的视觉注意力，却很少受到研究人员的关注。关于判断、决策和神经经济学的研究表明视觉注意力在构建决策中发挥着积极作用。本研究通过操纵目标的暴露时间来考察视觉注意力在生物性感知中的作用。在本研究进行的研究1a至1c中，参与者交替看到两张面部插图；其中一张脸显示得比另一张长。参与者选择他们认为更具活力和更圆润的脸。因此，对目标更长的暴露时间促进了对生物性的感知和偏好，而不是对圆润度的感知。此外，预先注册的研究2考察了潜在机制。结果表明，仅仅是暴露，而不是定向行为，可能在生物性感知中起关键作用。因此，在视觉注意力和生物性感知的反向关系中，有生命的物体吸引注意力——注意力导致对生物性的感知。
