Visuospatial perception is not affected by self-related information

Antonia F. Ten Brink, Rebecca de Haan, Daan R. Amelink, Anniek N. Holweg, Jie Sui, Janet H. Bultitude

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Previous research suggests that attention is drawn by self-related information. Three online experiments were conducted to investigate whether self-related stimuli alter visuospatial perceptual judgments. In a matching task, associations were learned between labels (‘Yourself’/friend/stranger's name) paired with cues. Cues were coloured outlines (Experiment 1, N = 135), geometric shapes (Experiment 2, N = 102), or coloured gradients (Experiment 3, N = 110). Visuospatial perception bias was measured with a greyscales task. Cues were presented prior to, and/or alongside greyscales. We hypothesized there would be a bias towards the self-related cue. In all experiments, we found a self-related bias in the matching task. Furthermore, there was an overall leftward visuospatial perceptual bias (pseudoneglect). However, we found anecdotal to moderate evidence for the absence of an effect of self-related cues on visuospatial perception judgments. Although self-related stimuli influence how our attention is oriented to stimuli, attention mechanisms that influence perceptual judgements are seemingly not affected by a self-bias.

Original languageEnglish
Article number103451
JournalConsciousness and Cognition
Volume107
Early online date1 Dec 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 31 Jan 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Antonia F. ten Brink was supported by a Rubicon grant (019.173SG.019) from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). The funder had no role in study design, analysis, and interpretation of data, writing the report, and the decision to submit the article for publication.

Keywords

  • Greyscales
  • Matching task
  • Pseudoneglect
  • Self-bias
  • Spatial attention
  • Visual perception
  • Visuospatial neglect

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology

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