Eye gaze behavior during affective picture viewing: Effects of motivational significance, gender, age, and repeated exposure

How top-down and bottom-up factors combine to determine eye movements during affective picture viewing is far from being completely understood. We investigated how observers' fixation frequency and scanpath length two indices of information seeking and intake - are related to self-reported valence (pleasantness) and arousal and depend on gender, age, and repeated exposure during affective picture viewing. We tracked the eye movements of 157 younger, middle-aged, and older adults when viewing 14 picture series each consisting of six thematically and affectively similar pictures. Participants' valence and arousal ratings were registered for each series. Fixation frequency and scanpath length increased with self-rated unpleasantness and arousal and decreased across the six pictures within series. This decrease was age- and arousal-dependent. Compared to men, women exhibited a more exploratory scanning behavior. These findings suggest that observers' affective appraisal, gender and age and repeated exposure to affective visual stimuli influence visual information seeking and intake.