Perceptual bias, more than age, impacts on eye movements during face processing

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Human Perception
• Visual Processing

Background:

• Right hemispheric dominance typically underlies face processing.
• Younger adults exhibit a left perceptual bias (LPB) and leftward eye movement bias when viewing faces.
• Age-related reductions in hemispheric asymmetry are predicted, potentially weakening these biases.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if aging weakens the left eye movement bias.
• To explore if a right perceptual bias (RPB) is associated with a right eye movement bias.
• To examine the relationship between age, perceptual biases, and eye movement patterns in face processing.

Main Methods:

• Older and younger adults judged the gender of chimeric faces under two viewing time conditions.
• Eye movements (saccades, fixations) and perceptual judgments were recorded.
• Analysis focused on the association between perceptual bias (LPB/RPB) and eye movement patterns.

Main Results:

• Neither age nor viewing time significantly weakened the left perceptual bias (LPB) or associated leftward eye movement bias.
• Both age groups initially looked left and made more left-sided fixations for gender judgments.
• A positive association was found between LPB and eye movements, particularly under restricted viewing time.
• Right perceptual bias (RPB) participants showed no accompanying eye movement bias.

Conclusions:

• Increased age is not clearly associated with weakened perceptual and eye movement biases for faces.
• An eye movement bias accompanies a left perceptual bias (LPB), especially under time restrictions.
• A right perceptual bias (RPB) is not consistently linked to a specific eye movement bias.