ИСТИНА

Introduction. In the scientific literature devoted to the study of the mechanisms of face perception, two processes are distinguished - analytical (perception of separate facial features) and holistic (perception of a whole features configuration). It is supposed that each of the mechanisms can be specifically reflected in the patterns of eye movements during facial perception. Nevertheless, the results of different authors are contradictory. We assumed that the inconsistency of results may be associated with the features of eye movements analysis, namely, with the methods of identifying the AOIs (eyes, nose, nose bridge, lips). Methods. Fifty-seven people (27 F, 30 M, 18-28 age) participated in the experiment. Stimuli were 10 photographs of faces (5 males, 5 females). For each photograph nine modifications were created: the distance between eyes or between nose and mouth was changed. Stimuli were presented in the upright or inverted condition for 2 seconds. The task was to rate the facial attractiveness on a scale from 1 to 9. Results. Eye tracking data were analyzed for the entire sample using three types of identifying AOIs. The data were also analyzed for groups of participants with different strategies of eye movements. The distinction of strategies was carried out based on the ratio of the mean fixation duration to the mean saccade amplitude, calculated for each subject. It was shown that the presence of statistically significant differences in the dwell time in different AOIs between the upright and inverted faces depended on the method of marking AOIs. It was also shown that the distribution of the dwell time by AOIs is closely related to individual strategies of eye movements. Conclusion. The absence of a single standard for identifying AOIs may be the reason for inconsistency of the results, based on which hypotheses about the dominance of holistic or analytical processes are formulated. According to our data, the most effective for the analysis of holistic processing is a more detailed type of identifying the AOIs, in which not only the main features (eyes, nose, mouth) are highlighted, but also the area of the nose bridge. When processing eye tracking data in research of facial perception, it is also necessary to consider individual strategies of eye movements.