TY - JOUR
T1 - Queues, Crowds, and Angry Mobs: Face Identification Under Distraction in a Virtual Airport
AU - Fysh, Matthew C.
AU - Baker, Edward
AU - Rockett, Jodie
AU - Allen, John
AU - McCall, Cade
AU - Burton, A. M.
AU - Bindemann, Markus
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Experimental Psychology Society 2023.
PY - 2024/6
Y1 - 2024/6
N2 - In visual environments, selective attention must be employed to focus on task-relevant stimuli. A key question here concerns the extent to which other stimuli within the visual field influence target processing. In this study, we ask whether face identity matching is subject to similar effects from irrelevant stimuli in the visual field, specifically task-irrelevant people. Although most previous studies rely on highly controlled face and body stimuli presented in isolation, here we use a more realistic environment. Participants take the role of passport officers and must match a person’s face to their photo-ID, while other people appear in the background, waiting to be processed. Presenting an interactive virtual environment on screen (Experiments 1 and 2) or in immersive VR (Experiment 3), we generally found no evidence for distraction from background people on face-matching accuracy. However, when immersed in VR, an angry crowd in the background delayed matching speed while not affecting accuracy. We discuss the theoretical implications of these results and their potential importance in practical settings.
AB - In visual environments, selective attention must be employed to focus on task-relevant stimuli. A key question here concerns the extent to which other stimuli within the visual field influence target processing. In this study, we ask whether face identity matching is subject to similar effects from irrelevant stimuli in the visual field, specifically task-irrelevant people. Although most previous studies rely on highly controlled face and body stimuli presented in isolation, here we use a more realistic environment. Participants take the role of passport officers and must match a person’s face to their photo-ID, while other people appear in the background, waiting to be processed. Presenting an interactive virtual environment on screen (Experiments 1 and 2) or in immersive VR (Experiment 3), we generally found no evidence for distraction from background people on face-matching accuracy. However, when immersed in VR, an angry crowd in the background delayed matching speed while not affecting accuracy. We discuss the theoretical implications of these results and their potential importance in practical settings.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85176562906&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218231203939
DO - https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218231203939
M3 - Article
SN - 1747-0218
VL - 77
SP - 1169
EP - 1178
JO - Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
JF - Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
IS - 6
ER -