ИСТИНА

The aim of our study was to reveal individual types of eye movement strategies that people use when perceiving facial expressions. We used composite facial expressions to explore the role of holistic/analytic processing in facial expressions. Composite faces were generated from photos of a poser showing one basic emotion in the upper part of the face and another in the lower part. 30 composites were constructed that combined Happiness and Anger in upper or lower face with other 5 basic expressions. 20 participants (12m, 16f) were tested. The stimuli were presented on an LCD-display for 3000ms at a distance of 0,75m. The participants were asked to choose an expression name using the list of seven basic emotions (neutral, sadness, disgust, happiness, fear, anger, surprise). Eye movements were recorded by iView X Hi Speed 1250. The heat maps and scan-paths were analyzed to classify the holistic/analytic strategies of eye movements. Our data showed that approximately 25% of the participants tend to use holistic eye movement strategies having longer fixations in the nose region, while the other 75% show a clear analytic type with the hottest spots on eyes and mouth. Significant gender differences of AOI were revealed: male participants more demonstrated holistic strategies. Also the changes in eye movement strategies were demonstrated in AOI distributions during the first, second and third fixations. The obtained results could be of great importance for developing complex methods of testing the facial expressions during social interactions.