Eye movement strategies deployed by humans to identify conspecifics are not universal. Although recognition accuracy is comparable, Westerners predominantly fixate the eyes during face recognition, whereas Easterners fixate the nose region. We recently showed with a novel gaze-contingent technique - the Spotlight - that when information outside central vision (2?° and 5?°) is restricted, observers of both cultures actively fixated the same face information during face recognition: the eyes and mouth. Only when both eye and mouth information were simultaneously available by fixating the nose region (8?°), did East Asian observers shift their fixations towards this location - a strategy similar to natural viewing conditions. Therefore, the central fixation pattern deployed by Easterners during face processing suggests better use of extrafoveal information while looking at faces, an issue that remains yet to be clarified.
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