Can faces affect object-based attention? Evidence from online experiments

Abstract

This study tested how human faces affect object-based attention (OBA) through two online experiments in a modified double-rectangle paradigm. The results of Experiment 1 revealed that faces did not elicit the OBA effect as non-face objects, which was caused by a longer response time (RT) when attention is focused on faces relative to non-face objects. In addition, by observing faster RTs when attention was engaged horizontally rather than vertically, we found a significant horizontal attention bias, which might override the OBA effect if vertical rectangles were the only items presented; these results were replicated in Experiment 2 (using only vertical rectangles) after directly measuring horizontal bias and excluding its influence on the OBA effect. This study suggested that faces cannot elicit the same-object advantage in the double-rectangle paradigm and provided a method to measure the OBA effect free from horizontal bias.

Faces do not guide attention in an object-based facilitation manner

“…This ensured that no visible faces were presented on the screen when participants shifted their attention to the second target, hence eliminating (or at least dramatically reducing) any direct filtering cost. Noteworthy, previous findings showed that the OBA effect persists after a short period of object disappearance (Xie et al, 2021 ). Based on this evidence and in line with H3 we predict that the disappeared faces should elicit a significant OBA effect both in faces and in the mosaic objects.…”

“…In this way, we ensured eliminating (or at least dramatically reducing) any stimulus-specific filtering cost on attentional shifting. Furthermore, based on a finding that objects can still elicit the OBA effect after their short period of offset (Xie et al, 2021 ), we predict that the OBA effect would be observed for faces that disappear for a short period (H3).…”

“…However, our previous works found no OBA effect when human faces were used to fill the rectangles. The results revealed longer RTs when shifting attention within a face than in a non-face object, which suggested that the null OBA effect in faces was caused by the slower shifting attention within a face (Xie et al, 2022 ). Likewise, Valenza et al ( 2014 , 2021) found a null OBA effect in faces.…”

“…Instead, it can be widely observed in different kinds of objects. For example, the OBA effect has been demonstrated with Gestalt-law-based objects (Marino & Scholl, 2005 ; Marrara & Moore, 2003 ), memory or imaginative objects (Ongchoco & Scholl, 2019 ; Xie et al, 2021 ), objects encoded with social or semantic information (Li & Logan, 2008 ; Yin et al, 2018 ), and objects in real-world scenes (Malcolm & Shomstein, 2015 ). This wealth of evidence suggests that attention can be guided by various objects.…”