Abstract
Although many studies have found the existence of cultural differences in higher-order cognitive processing, such as decision making and guess, whether cultural differences exist in processing of a more fundamental nature, such as visual attention and scene perception, is still controversial (e.g., Chua et al., 2005; Rayner et al., 2007; Nisbett et al., 2001). Among many aspects in culture such as ways of communication and language, Miyamoto et al. (2006) indicated one possibility that differences of landscapes explain the origin of cultural differences. In the present study, we examined the influence of the cultural scenery images on how to perceive cultural-independent general sceneries. In the experiment, Japanese participants were asked to see scenery images and rate the degree to which they like them. During the task, eye movements of the participants were measured. In the first block, culturally neutral scenery (e.g., a dog in a park) was presented and participant’s eye movements were measured as baseline. In the following three blocks, Japanese typical sceneries were presented to some participants and American typical sceneries were presented to other participants. Eye movements during these blocks indicated how to perceive cultural typical sceneries. Then in the last four blocks, the culturally neutral sceneries were presented every fourth trial, following three cultural sceneries, which were presented to prevent weakening of their exposure. The results showed that participants were more likely to move their eyes within a broader area when viewing Japanese sceneries than they were when viewing American sceneries. Moreover, a correspondent pattern was observed even when viewing culturally neutral sceneries. When viewing sceneries which contain single object, fixations were more likely to be distributed after seeing Japanese sceneries. These differences afforded by the cultural scenery images lead to different visual attention processing among cultures.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2013