Gender Differences In Left Visual Dominance Effect Based Ongaze Cues Of Different Facial Expressions

At present,a large number of studies have shown that there is a dominant effect of the left visual field in the processing of gaze cues,showing that the gaze cuing effect in the left visual field of normal subjects is significantly greater than that in the right visual field.Although facial expression and subject gender are thought to play an important moderating role in the gaze cuing effect,it is unclear whether facial expression and subject gender influence the left visual field dominance effect of gaze cues.This study mainly adopts behavioral measurement and eye-tracking technology,by presenting gaze cues in the left and right visual fields,and allowing subjects to complete the gaze cue task.Three experiments were designed to explore whether facial expressions and subjects’ gender would affect the left visual field dominance effect of gaze cue.In Experiment 1,the subjects were asked to watch the fixation point in the center of the screen through the instruction,and asked them to judge the position of the black spot that appeared behind the gaze cue in the left or right visual field.The gaze cue was set with three emotions: fear,happy and neutral.The results found that facial expressions and subjects’ gender can interactively affect the left visual field dominance effect of gaze cues,which is mainly showed in the left visual field dominance effect of gaze cues only in female subjects under neutral expressions,while male subjects in three emotional conditions have no visual field advantage effect of gaze cues.In Experiment 2,eye tracking technology was used to monitor the subjects’ eye movements,making them always keep their eyes on the center of the screen,and strictly eliminate the data of the trials where the subjects’ fixation point was not in the center of the screen,and repeated the experimental settings of Experiment 1.The results found that the subjects gender moderate the left visual field dominance effect of gaze cues,showing that the gaze cue effect of female subjects in the left visual field is significantly greater than that in the right visual field,while male subjects have no such effect;in addition,facial expressions do not affect the left visual field dominance effect of gaze cue;In Experiment 3,anger and neutral facial expressions were set as the cuing face,and it was investigated whether the approach character of negative emotion and gender of the subject would affect the left visual field dominance effect of gaze cues.The results found that the subjects gender moderate the left visual field dominance effect of gaze cues,showing that the gaze cue effect of female subjects in the left visual field is significantly greater than that in the right visual field,while male subjects have no such effect;in addition,angry facial expressions did not affect the left visual field dominance effect of gaze cue.The results of this study show that under the condition of strictly restricting the subject’s fixation point,facial expressions will not affect the left visual field dominance effect of gaze cues;the gender of the subjects will affect the left visual field dominance effect of gaze cues,the gaze cue effect of female subjects in the left visual field is significantly greater than that in the right visual field,while male subjects have no such effect.The findings of this study suggest that male and female may have differences in the asymmetry of the left and right hemispheres of the brain when processing social spatial cues,and this finding provides experimental evidence for understanding the differences in disposing gaze cue between male and female.