Openness to experience predicts eye movement behavior during scene viewing

Wyche, Nicholas J.; Edwards, Mark; Goodhew, Stephanie C. · 2024 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.3758/s13414-024-02937-z

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Summary

This study investigates whether individual preferences for deploying spatial attention are consistent across different modalities—specifically, attentional breadth versus eye movement shifts—and identifies factors associated with these preferences. While the ability to perform goal-directed attentional deployments is well-studied, how individuals prefer to use spatial attention when task demands do not compel a specific strategy remains understudied. The researchers aimed to determine if preferences for attentional breadth correlate with eye movement characteristics and to assess whether working memory capacity, personality traits, or world beliefs predict these preferences. The research comprised two experiments. Experiment 1 involved 135 participants who completed measures of attentional breadth preference using a subjective Kimchi-Palmer task and an objective undirected Navon task. Eye movement preferences were assessed via a free-viewing task where participants viewed naturalistic scenes for delayed recall, with eye movements tracked using an Eyelink 1000 Plus tracker. Participants also completed the Automated Operation Span Task to measure working memory capacity. Experiment 2 expanded the scope by measuring personality traits and fundamental world beliefs using the Primal World Beliefs scale, alongside the same attentional and eye movement tasks. The experimental design ensured that tasks measured preference rather than ability by removing specific performance incentives for particular attentional strategies. The results demonstrated consistent individual differences in both attentional breadth preferences and eye movement characteristics; however, these two types of preferences were unrelated to each other. Working memory capacity showed no significant link to either preference type. In contrast, the personality trait of Openness to Experience robustly predicted eye movement behavior. Specifically, higher levels of Openness were associated with smaller saccade amplitudes and shorter scan paths during scene viewing. This pattern suggests that individuals high in Openness engage in a more absorbed, detailed examination of visual information. No significant relationships were found between world beliefs and spatial-attentional preferences. The findings indicate that preferences for shifts of attention during scene viewing are dissociable from the breadth of attention individuals choose to adopt. This dissociation challenges the notion of a unified spatial-attentional preference style. Instead, the study highlights that personality dimensions, particularly Openness to Experience, are significant predictors of how individuals visually explore their environment. The association between high Openness and finer-grained eye movements implies that personality traits may shape fundamental tendencies in visual information acquisition, offering insights into individual differences in cognition and potential applications in fields such as driver safety assessment.

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• eye movements scanning