ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B
主办:中国心理学会
   中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

心理学报 ›› 2013, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (2): 161-168.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2013.00161

• 论文 • 上一篇    下一篇

面孔性别辨认中返回抑制效应的性别差异

徐丹妮;张佳悦;李先春   

  1. (1华东师范大学心理与认知科学学院, 上海 200062) (2浙江大学心理与行为科学系, 杭州 310028)
  • 收稿日期:2012-07-20 发布日期:2013-02-28 出版日期:2013-02-28
  • 通讯作者: 李先春
  • 基金资助:

    上海市浦江人才计划资助(11PJC044)。

Sex Differences in Inhibition of Return in Face-gender Discrimination

XU Danni;ZHANG Jiayue;LI Xianchun   

  1. (1 The school of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China) (2 The Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310028, China)
  • Received:2012-07-20 Online:2013-02-28 Published:2013-02-28
  • Contact: LI Xianchun

摘要: 采用线索-靶子实验范式, 要求被试完成面孔性别辨认任务, 从注意定向方面探讨面孔性别靶刺激返回抑制效应的性别差异。结果显示有效线索位置上面孔性别靶刺激的反应时均显著长于无效线索位置上的面孔性别靶刺激的反应时, 即表现出明显的返回抑制效应。进一步分析显示, 男性被试对同性和异性面孔靶刺激的返回抑制量无显著差异, 表明男性对面孔刺激的返回抑制不受面孔性别的影响; 而卵泡期女性对异性面孔靶刺激的返回抑制量显著小于黄体期女性, 表明女性对面孔靶刺激的返回抑制量与面孔性别和生理周期的交互作用有关。这些结果再一次为返回抑制的盲目机制提供了部分实验证据, 同时我们推测面孔性别对返回抑制的影响可能依赖于观察者对性信息的敏感性。

关键词: 返回抑制, 面孔性别, 性别差异

Abstract: The inhibition of return (IOR) promotes the exploration of new and previous unattended objects in the scene during visual search or foraging by preventing attention from returning to already-attended objects. Many lines of evidence have shown that the different kinds of emotions have significant influence on the magnitude of inhibition of return (IOR) in the cue-response paradigm. Human faces, as the social and biological stimulus, play an important role in our social life, and face-gender information is also important in our social activity, especially during face-to-face communications. However, it still remains largely unknown how the face-gender information affects IOR and what the difference is between sexes in IOR effects. Using the cue-target paradigm as used in other studies, in the present study we explored the sex difference in IOR effect in the face-gender discrimination task. During the cue period, a green colored box (cue) was first shown on either the right or left side of a monitor screen with equal probability for 200 ms, which was followed by a central cue. Then, the target face (either a male or a female face with neutral emotion, randomly arranged) was then appeared on the valid position (the same position the cue had been) or invalid position (the position in the other side of the cue) with equal probability after the offset of central cue. Subjects were asked to discriminate the gender of the target face by pressing a button out of two as accurately and quickly as possible. We collected behavioral data from each subject, including correct rate and reaction time. Forty-six college participants including 22 males and 24 females were recruited in the present study. Our data showed that the reaction time to face-gender in valid-cued locations was significantly longer than that in invalid-cued locations, which indicates that there exists IOR in the face-gender discrimination task. Furthermore, the male subjects did not show any difference in the magnitude of IOR between male and female faces, which indicates that face-gender has no effect on IOR effects in the face-gender discrimination task. However, the average magnitude of IOR for male faces in female participants in their follicular phase was smaller than those participants in their luteal phase, which suggests that the magnitude of IOR is related to the interaction of face-gender and the menstrual period of the female subjects. Our data show that IOR in the face-gender discrimination task does not show any sex difference. We therefore provide evidence for the ‘blind’ mechanism of IOR in the present study. However, the difference in magnitude of IOR between different menstrual periods of female subjects suggests that the effect of face-gender on IOR relies on the participants' sensitivity to gender and sex information.

Key words: inhibition of return (IOR), face-gender, sex difference