Study Of Attention Bias On Disfigured Face:Evidence From Eye-tracing Technique

For a long time,researchers on facial attention bias have focused on facial attractiveness,facial expressions,negative faces and so on.However,the faces used in these studies are normal faces without disfigurements.Disfigured face is a face that has persistent or significant changes in certain areas of the face due to facial lesions,trauma,and birthmarks.How do people allocate their attention when faced with a disfigured face?Can people be caught quickly by the disfigured face and maintain attention compared to the normal face?It still needs further study.Therefore,on the basis of previous research,this study uses multiple paradigms and eye movement techniques to explore the characteristics of attentional processing on disfigued faces.In this study,three experiments were used to explore the individual's attentional bias toward defect faces and their mechanisms,as well as the processing attributes of defective faces.In the experiment 1,the visual search paradigm combined with eye movement techniques was used to investigate whether individuals have attentional bias on defective faces and whether they are affected by the gender of the faces.Experiment 2 further explores the mechanism of individual attentional bias towards disfigrued faces.Using dot-probe paradigm and eye movement techniques,it aims to investigate the cause of attentional bias on disfigured faces is faciliatated attention or difficulty in attention disengagement,or both.Experiment 3 uses the perceptual load paradigm and further explores whether attentional processing of defective faces will be conditioned by perceptual loading and thus examines the automated properties of defective face processing.The study draws the following conclusion:(1)Compared with normal faces,individuals have attentional bias toward disfigured faces,which means that disfigured faces can capture the attention of individuals more quickly.(2)Compared with the normal face,the attention bias of the individual to the disfigured face is caused by both the faciliatated attention and the difficulty in attention disengagement.Disfigured face stimuli can quickly capture the individual's attention and can maintain the individual's attention.Once the individual's attention is directed to the disfigured face,it is difficult to disengage from the disfigured face,leading to the attentional bias toward the disfigured face.(3)Under different levels of perceptual load,there was no significant difference in processing speed between disfigured faces and normal faces.Nevertheless,the processing of disfigured faces is prior to normal faces which means it is an automated process.