Williams, E. H., Cristino, F. and Cross, E. S. (2019) Human body motion captures visual attention and elicits pupillary dilation. Cognition, 193, 104029. (doi: 10.1016/j.cognition.2019.104029) (PMID:31352014)
|
Text
190856.pdf - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. 751kB |
Abstract
The social motivation theory proposes that individuals naturally orient their attention to the social world. Research has documented the rewarding value of social stimuli, such as biological motion, to typically developed individuals. Here, we used complementary eye tracking measures to investigate how social motion cues affect attention and arousal. Specifically, we examined whether viewing the human body moving naturally versus mechanically leads to greater attentional engagement and changes in autonomic arousal (as assessed by pupil size measures). Participants completed an attentional disengagement task in two independent experiments, while pupillary responses were recorded. We found that natural, human-like motion produced greater increases in attention and arousal than mechanical motion, whether the moving agent was human or not. These findings contribute an important piece to our understanding of social motivation by demonstrating that human motion is a key social stimulus that engages visual attention and induces autonomic arousal in the viewer.
| Item Type: | Articles |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | This work was supported by funding to E.S.C. from the following bodies: a PhD studentship for E.H.W. from Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, a Future Research Leaders award jointly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and Medical Research Council (ES/K001892/1); a Marie Curie Career Integration award (CIG11-2012-322256); and a European Research Council starting grant (ERC-2015-STG-677270). |
| Status: | Published |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: | Williams, Ms Elin and Cross, Professor Emily |
| Authors: | Williams, E. H., Cristino, F., and Cross, E. S. |
| College/School: | College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience |
| Journal Name: | Cognition |
| Publisher: | Elsevier |
| ISSN: | 0010-0277 |
| ISSN (Online): | 1873-7838 |
| Published Online: | 25 July 2019 |
| Copyright Holders: | Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. |
| First Published: | First published in Cognition 193:104029 |
| Publisher Policy: | Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher |
University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record
Funder and Project Information
Funder and Project Information