Exploring Fixation Times During Emotional Decoding in Intimate Partner Violence Perpetrators: An Eye-Tracking Pilot...

Deficits in emotion recognition abilities have been described as risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. However, much of this research is based on self-reports or instruments that present limited psychometric properties. While current scientific literature supports the use of eye tracking to assess cognitive and emotional processes, including emotional decoding abilities, there is a gap in the scientific literature when it comes to measuring these processes in IPV perpetrators using eye tracking in an emotional decoding task. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine the association between fixation times via eye tracking and emotional decoding abilities in IPV perpetrators, controlling for potential confounding variables.

To this end, an emotion recognition task was created using an eye tracker in a group of 52 IPV perpetrators. This task consisted of 20 images with people expressing different emotions. For each picture, the facial region was selected as an area of interest (AOI). The fixation times were added to obtain a total gaze fixation time score. Additionally, an ad hoc emotional decoding multiple-choice test about each picture was developed. These instruments were complemented with other self-reports previously designed to measure emotion decoding abilities.

The results showed that the longer the total fixation times on the AOI, the better the emotional decoding abilities in IPV perpetrators. Specifically, fixation times explained 20% of the variance in emotional decoding test scores. Additionally, our ad hoc emotional decoding test was significantly correlated with previously designed emotion recognition tools and showed similar reliability to the eyes test.

Overall, this pilot study highlights the importance of including eye movement signals to explore attentional processes involved in emotion recognition abilities in IPV perpetrators. This would allow us to adequately specify the therapeutic needs of IPV perpetrators to improve current interventions.