Lateral presentation alters overall viewing strategy

<p>Eye tracking has been used during face categorisation and identification tasks to identify perceptuallysalient facial features and infer underlying cognitive processes. However, viewing patterns are influencedby a variety of gaze biases, drawing fixations to the centre of a screen and horizontally to the left side offace images (left-gaze bias). In order to investigate potential interactions between gaze biases uniquelyassociated with facial expression processing, and those associated with screen location, face stimuliwere presented in three possible screen positions to the left, right and centre. Comparisons of fixationsbetween screen locations highlight a significant impact of the screen centre bias, pulling fixations towardsthe centre of the screen and modifying gaze biases generally observed during facial categorisationtasks. A left horizontal bias for fixations was found to be independent of screen position but interactingwith screen centre bias, drawing fixations to the left hemi-face rather than just to the left of the screen.Implications for eye tracking studies utilising centrally presented faces are discussed.</p>