Animated triangles: An eye tracking investigation

Abstract

We presented three types of animations on an eye tracking monitor to 31 adult participants. In line with previous work, verbal descriptions of these animations indicate that one type (theory of mind or ToM) evokes mental state attributions, while another type (random) does not, with an intermediate category (goal-directed) evoking a moderate amount of mental state attributions. We expected longer fixations with greater depth of processing, which we assume is required for mental state attributions. In line with this expectation we found that the ToM animations invited long fixations; the random animations invited short fixations, while the goal-directed animations invited an intermediate amount of fixations, with some clips inviting shorter and others longer fixations. These findings demonstrate that it is possible to capture systematic differences in behaviour while viewing animations not only by means of a verbal measure, but also in terms of a simple measure of eye movements.

Agency attribution and visuospatial perspective taking

“…Nine film clips were taken from the Frith-Happé animations (Abell et al, 2000) and shortened to about 18 sec while preserving the essential story line (Klein et al, 2009). All of these films, 20º in width and 16º in height, showed a red and blue triangle with heights of about 4º and 2º and widths of about 2º and 1º, respectively.…”

“…These films were taken from the Frith-Happé animations and depicted a red and blue triangle moving in a self-propelled fashion across the screen (Abell, Happé, & Frith, 2000). It has been shown before that these films activate agency and theory-of-mind (ToM; see below) processes to a different degree (e.g., Abell et al, 2000;Castelli, Happé, Frith, & Frith, 2000;Klein, Zwickel, Prinz, & Frith, 2009). Each film belongs to one of three categories: The films "Billiard," "Drifting," and "Tennis" belong to the random (R) category.…”

Theory of Mind in adults with right hemisphere damage: What’s the story?

“…This is a problem that has also plagued previous investigations of linguistic production in RHD (Heath & Blonder, 2005). One promising method of avoiding the issue of variability in open-ended self-reports is to employ eyetracking methods, as recently shown by Klein, Zwickel, Prinz, and Frith (2008). Use of eye-tracking equipment would also allow the inclusion of an LHD group for comparison, which was impossible in the present study due to the general linguistic impairments among patients with LHD.…”

On the relation between spontaneous perspective taking and other visuospatial processes

“…In Experiment 1, participants viewed six of the animations already used by Klein, Zwickel, Prinz, and Frith (2009). In these animations, two triangles are moving in a seemingly self-propelled fashion for about 18 s. Crucially, half of the selected animations are constructed in a way that typically elicits descriptions of the animations in terms of mental concepts-as, for example, "The small one is surprising the large one."…”