On human visual cognition of hands

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26780412
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Experimental psychology
• Research Institution: Niigata University (2016-2017); The University of Tokyo (2014-2015)
• Principal Investigator: Niimi Ryosuke 新潟大学, 人文社会・教育科学系, 准教授 (60513687)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 注意 / 情景知覚 / 身体知覚 / 顔認知 / 視覚認知

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Psychological experiments were conducted to examine the role of hands in visual selective attention. First, Posner's classical cueing paradigm was used to assess how strongly hand images attract attention. It was found that hands had no attentional advantage over other object (e.g., flowers), which was an unexpected result. In addition, IOR (inhibition of return) was examined. Second, eye-tracking experiments were conducted to examine the attentional shifts during free observations of natural scene images containing human figure. Results showed that i) observers looked at hands just after faces, and ii) hands interacting with other objects were looked at more often and quickly than non-interacting hands. The relationships with other objects (faces, tools, etc.) would be critical to understand the role of hands in attention, scene perception, and person perception.

Free Research Field

認知心理学