The Spotlight reveals the information actively used by observers. We parametrically restricted the facial information available to the observers by using Gaussian apertures dynamically centered on observers’ fixations of 2 (foveal vision only), 5 and 8degrees (both tapping into extrafoveal vision). Below is a movie of the eye movement strategy deployed by a Western Caucasian observer during 10 seconds face learning with 2 degrees Spotlight aperture size

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and 5 degree aperture size

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This technique allowed us to show that in the constrained 2 and 5 degrees Spotlights conditions Westerners and Easterners rely on the very same information to recognize faces: observers actively used triangular fixations mainly over the eyes and partially the mouth to solve the face recognition task.

 

Caldara, R., Zhou, X., & Miellet, S. (2010). Putting Culture Under the ‘Spotlight’ Reveals Universal Information Use for Face Recognition. PLoS ONE, 5(3), e9708. [PDF], Supporting Figure 1, Supporting Movie 1