Emotions' Impact on Viewing Behavior under Natural Conditions

Abstract

Human overt attention under natural conditions is guided by stimulus features as well as by higher cognitive components, such as task and emotional context. In contrast to the considerable progress regarding the former, insight into the interaction of emotions and attention is limited. Here we investigate the influence of the current emotional context on viewing behavior under natural conditions.In two eye-tracking studies participants freely viewed complex scenes embedded in sequences of emotion-laden images. The latter primes constituted specific emotional contexts for neutral target images.Viewing behavior toward target images embedded into sets of primes was affected by the current emotional context, revealing the intensity of the emotional context as a significant moderator. The primes themselves were not scanned in different ways when presented within a block (Study 1), but when presented individually, negative primes were more actively scanned than positive primes (Study 2). These divergent results suggest an interaction between emotional priming and further context factors. Additionally, in most cases primes were scanned more actively than target images. Interestingly, the mere presence of emotion-laden stimuli in a set of images of different categories slowed down viewing activity overall, but the known effect of image category was not affected. Finally, viewing behavior remained largely constant on single images as well as across the targets' post-prime positions (Study 2).We conclude that the emotional context significantly influences the exploration of complex scenes and the emotional context has to be considered in predictions of eye-movement patterns.

Are happy drivers safer drivers? Evidence from hazard response times and eye tracking data

“…This suggests that the introvert character of the sad mood prioritises dealing with personal emotions, therefore prolonging the reactions in this condition (Pêcher, Lemercier and Cellier 2009). As for the eye tracking data, the findings are in line with previous research with the longest fixations in the sad condition (Kaspar et al 2013). Driving safety research claims that fixation durations depend on driver experience with novice drivers fixating longer (Chapman and Underwood 1998), as well as road type with roads richer in road furniture generating shorter fixations (Chapman and Underwood 1998;Robinson et al 1972) and driving conditions with low visibility resulting in longer fixations (Konstantopoulos 2009).…”

“…Moreover, Kaspar et al (2013) This evidence was derived by comparing search patterns of learner and experienced drivers.…”

Feeling good, searching the bad: Positive priming increases attention and memory for negative stimuli on webpages

“…1). The presentation duration for each image was 6s, following previous studies (Kaspar & König, 2011a,b;Kaspar et al, 2013). In the subsequent eye-tracking session (the main experiment), we were allegedly interested in viewing behavior on prototypes of a novel website incorporating 24 webpages designed by students of the university.…”

“…Following Kaspar et al (2013), we used 44 full-colored images of the International Affective Picture Set (IAPS, Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 2008) with a valence rating below 3 as negative primes 1 and 44 images with a rating above 7 as positive primes 2 . In order to ensure that the gist of the primes was captured within the 6s (presentation duration), all images were presented in their native resolution of 1024 Â 768 pixels and were centered on a gray background (RGB values: 182/182/182) that matched the resolution of the monitor screen (2560 Â 1600).…”

“…We investigated the influence of the mood priming on the spatial exploration of webpages (H2a) by calculating the entropy of the spatial distribution of fixations (see Kaspar, Krapp, & König, 2015;Kaspar & König, 2011a;Kaspar, Ollermann, & Hamborg, 2011;Kaspar et al, 2013). Entropy quantifies the spread of fixation distributions independently of specific geometrical arrangements, while higher entropy values indicate a more spread-out distribution.…”