2018 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Comparing emotional attention in humans and chimpanzees: Is the touchscreen dot probe task an effective tool?
| Project/Area Number |
18H05811
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
WILSON DUNCAN 京都大学, 霊長類研究所, 教務補佐員 (20828925)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-08-24 – 2020-03-31
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| Keywords | emotional attention / humans / chimpanzees / dot probe task |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The aim of the project is to evaluate the effectiveness of the dot probe task to compare emotional attention in humans and chimpanzees. In FY2018, I published a paper entitled ‘Exploring attentional bias towards threatening faces in chimpanzees using the dot probe task’ in the academic journal PloS ONE. I also conducted dot probe eye-tracking experiments with chimpanzees. I found that the time to initial fixation on the dots was faster after images of objects vs. scrambled images. However, no difference was found in time to initial fixation for threatening vs. neutral faces. This pattern of attention is consistent with the touchscreen responses I obtained previously, suggesting provisionally that initial gaze does accurately reflect touchscreen responses. In addition, I conducted a touchscreen visual search experiment with chimpanzees. They showed more efficient search for a threatening face target amongst neutral face distractors than vice versa, demonstrating an attentional bias towards threatening faces not revealed by the dot probe task. Visual search is also a promising measure of emotional attention in chimpanzees and I will evaluate this task further as the project progresses.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
In a change to my original proposal, I started with the second dot probe study first. This was because I had just completed training in how to use the eye-tracker and was in a good position to start the study. I also started with chimpanzee participants as they were immediately available. There were some minor delays in the initial stages of the eye-tracking experiments, as some of the chimpanzees did not attend fully to the sequence of events presented on the screen. However, after modifying the procedure so that the presentation of some visual elements are manually controlled by the experimenter, the chimpanzees maintained their attention sufficiently. Most of the chimpanzee data has now been collected and analysed for the second study. I also conducted additional touchscreen visual search experiments with chimpanzees. Overall, the project is progressing on time.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In FY2019 the main focus of the project will shift towards human participants. I am currently recruiting human participants for the touchscreen and eye-tracking dot probe experiments and expect to have collected and analysed the data by autumn. Concurrently, I will conduct further visual search experiments with chimpanzees and humans. Having established that chimpanzees show attentional biases towards threatening faces using visual search, I will examine which facial features are important for holding attention. For example, if biases disappear when the threatening face mouth area is artificially darkened, this would suggest that the mouth is important for holding attention. I intend to integrate these visual search experiments into the project as an addition measure to compare emotional attention between chimpanzees and humans. These results can also be compared and contrasted with those of the dot probe tasks.
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