Cognitive Psychological Research about Head Based Attentional Modulation

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25780441
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Experimental psychology
• Research Institution: The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (2014); Tohoku University (2013)
• Principal Investigator: NAKASHIMA Ryoichi 独立行政法人理化学研究所, 脳科学総合研究センター, 研究員 (30626073)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 視覚的注意 / 頭部方向 / 眼球運動 / 頭部と眼球の協調関係

Outline of Final Research Achievements

People usually see things using frontal viewing, and avoid eccentric gaze where the directions of the head and eyes are largely different. This study examined the relationship between head direction and visual attention to clarify visual perceptual effects of head direction. Results of visual search experiments show that lateral viewing increased the time required to detect a target in a serial attentive search task. Further, we conducted a visual identification experiment where a target was presented in the peripheral visual field. We manipulated the participants’ head direction and fixation position: the head was directed to the fixation location, the target position, or the opposite side of the fixation. The performance was highest when the head was directed to the target position even when there was misalignment of the head and eye. The results suggest that visual perception (visual attentive processing) can be influenced by both head direction and fixation position.

Free Research Field

社会科学