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Comparing emotional attention in humans and chimpanzees: Is the touchscreen dot probe task an effective tool?

Research Project

Project/Area Number 19K21003
Project/Area Number (Other) 18H05811 (2018)
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund (2019)
Single-year Grants (2018)
Review Section 0110:Psychology and related fields
Research InstitutionKyoto University

Principal Investigator

Wilson Duncan  京都大学, 霊長類研究所, 非常勤研究員 (20828925)

Project Period (FY) 2018-08-24 – 2020-03-31
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2019)
Budget Amount *help
¥2,860,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥660,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
Fiscal Year 2018: ¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
KeywordsChimpanzees / Humans / Evolution / Attentional bias / Facial expression / Threat / Dot probe task / Visual search task / emotional attention / humans / chimpanzees / dot probe task
Outline of Research at the Start

This project will evaluate the effectiveness of the dot-probe task to compare emotional attention in humans and chimpanzees. The first study will measure touchscreen responses to allow direct comparison of attention towards emotional stimuli (facial expressions) between the two species. The second study will compare direct (initial gaze fixation with eye-tracking) and indirect (touchscreen response times) measures of attention. Evaluating if touchscreen responses accurately reflect spatial attention will reveal the effectiveness of the task at comparing emotional attention in the two species.

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The dot probe task compared attentional orientation towards emotional faces in chimpanzees and humans. Both species showed no attentional bias towards threatening versus neutral faces. This suggested that the task was not so effective at measuring emotional attention. However, a visual search task provided the first demonstration of an attentional bias towards threatening faces in chimpanzees, with more efficient search for threatening than neutral face targets. This was due to greater difficulty in disengaging attention from threatening face distractors, consistent with human research. The visual search task appeared to be more effective at measuring emotional attention.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

The project revealed that chimpanzees give attentional priority to threatening faces at a relatively later stage of processing. This suggests a bias towards threatening faces is a shared characteristic, which can be traced back to at least the last common ancestor between Old World monkeys and apes.

Report

(3 results)
  • 2019 Annual Research Report   Final Research Report ( PDF )
  • 2018 Annual Research Report
  • Research Products

    (7 results)

All 2019 2018

All Journal Article (1 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 1 results,  Peer Reviewed: 1 results,  Open Access: 1 results) Presentation (6 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 3 results,  Invited: 3 results)

  • [Journal Article] Exploring attentional bias towards threatening faces in chimpanzees using the dot probe task.2018

    • Author(s)
      Wilson, D. A., & Tomonaga, M.
    • Journal Title

      PLoS ONE

      Volume: 13 Issue: 11 Pages: e0207378-e0207378

    • DOI

      10.1371/journal.pone.0207378

    • NAID

      120006543434

    • Related Report
      2018 Annual Research Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Exploring attentional bias towards threatening faces in chimpanzees2019

    • Author(s)
      Duncan A. Wilson
    • Organizer
      Animal Welfare and Behaviour Group, University of Bristol (UK)
    • Related Report
      2019 Annual Research Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] Exploring attentional bias towards threatening faces in chimpanzees using the dot probe task2019

    • Author(s)
      Duncan A. Wilson
    • Organizer
      European Federation for Primatology/Primate Society of Great Britain International Conference, Oxford (UK)
    • Related Report
      2019 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Exploring attentional bias towards emotional faces in chimpanzees using the dot probe task2019

    • Author(s)
      Duncan A. Wilson
    • Organizer
      53rd International Society for Applied Ethology Congress, Bergen (Norway)
    • Related Report
      2019 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Exploring attentional bias towards emotional faces in chimpanzees using the dot probe task2019

    • Author(s)
      Duncan A. Wilson
    • Organizer
      14th International Conference on Environmental Enrichment, Kyoto (Japan)
    • Related Report
      2019 Annual Research Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Evaluating the effectiveness of the dot probe task as a measure of emotional attention in chimpanzees.2018

    • Author(s)
      Duncan A. Wilson
    • Organizer
      Centre for Behaviour and Evolution (University of Newcastle, UK)
    • Related Report
      2018 Annual Research Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] Evaluating the effectiveness of the dot probe task as a measure of emotional attention in chimpanzees.2018

    • Author(s)
      Duncan A. Wilson
    • Organizer
      Adaptive Behaviour Research Group (University of Sheffield, UK)
    • Related Report
      2018 Annual Research Report
    • Invited

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Published: 2018-08-27   Modified: 2024-03-26  

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