Cultural adaptation of visual attention: calibration of the oculomotor control system in accordance with cultural scenes

Abstract

Previous studies have found that Westerners are more likely than East Asians to attend to central objects (i.e., analytic attention), whereas East Asians are more likely than Westerners to focus on background objects or context (i.e., holistic attention). Recently, it has been proposed that the physical environment of a given culture influences the cultural form of scene cognition, although the underlying mechanism is yet unclear. This study examined whether the physical environment influences oculomotor control. Participants saw culturally neutral stimuli (e.g., a dog in a park) as a baseline, followed by Japanese or United States scenes, and finally culturally neutral stimuli again. The results showed that participants primed with Japanese scenes were more likely to move their eyes within a broader area and they were less likely to fixate on central objects compared with the baseline, whereas there were no significant differences in the eye movements of participants primed with American scenes. These results suggest that culturally specific patterns in eye movements are partly caused by the physical environment.

Figure 1. Materials used in this study.

(A) Examples of photographs used in this study. Single-object (upper left) and multiple-objects photographs (upper right) were presented in the before- and after-adaptation blocks. Photographs of Japanese scenes (bottom left) and American scenes (bottom right) were presented in the adaptation and after-adaptation blocks. All photographs were presented in color. (B) The order of photograph presentation is shown.

Figure 2. Mean variances in fixation during presentation of cultural scenes in the adaptation and after-adaptation blocks.

Black bars indicate variances when participants saw Japanese scenes, and white bars indicate variances when participants saw American scenes. Error bars show standard errors.

Figure 3. Mean variances in fixation during presentation of neutral scenes in the before- and after-adaptation blocks.

Black bars indicate variances in the before-adaptation blocks, and white bars indicate variances in the after-adaptation blocks. Error bars show standard errors.

Figure 4. Mean numbers of fixations on the single object during the presentation of single-object photographs.

Black bars indicate variances in the before-adaptation block, and white bars indicate variances in the after-adaptation block. Error bars show standard errors.