Аннотация:Facial expression recognition mechanisms were studied. The main purpose of the
study was to investigate the relationship between eye movement strategies in face perception
processes and the intensity of holistic perception effects, namely the inversion effect. It
was assumed that if holistic and analytical mechanisms rely on certain specific image viewing
strategies, the high intensity of the inversion effect would be associated with certain
characteristics of eye movements, specifically the number of examined facial features and
the number of glance transitions between them. The strength of the inversion effect was
measured as a decrease in the accuracy of expression recognition of inverted images, and
indicated the dominance of the mechanisms of holistic perception. We analyzed responses
and eye tracking data of 92 participants in a facial expression recognition experiment. Photos
of four characters were used as stimuli. Each face expressed seven basic expressions that
were presented in three conditions: upright, inverted and thatcherized form. A within-subjects
design was used. The results showed a significant correlation between the effects of
inversion and thatcherization, which argues in favor of the universality of the mechanism
used by a particular person in face expression recognition. We found a high correlation between
the eye movements characteristics under three conditions of presentation, which
indicates an individual-specific type of oculomotor activity. However, no correlation was
found between the strength of holistic processing and certain eye movements characteristics.
Most likely, oculomotor strategies for collecting information do not display the analytic
or holistic mechanisms of its processing in facial expression recognition.