Coevolution of visual behaviour, the material world and social complexity, depicted by the eye-tracking of archaeological objects in humans.

ABSTRACT: We live in a cluttered visual world that is overflowing with information, the continuous processing of which would be a truly daunting task. Nevertheless, our brains have evolved to select which part of a visual scene is to be prioritized and analysed in detail, and which parts can be discarded or analysed at a later stage. This selection is in part determined by the visual stimuli themselves, and is known as "selective attention", which, in turn, determines how we explore and interact with our environment, including the distinct human artefacts produced in different socio-cultural contexts. Here we hypothesize that visual responses and material objects should therefore co-evolve to reflect changes in social complexity and culture throughout history. Using eye-tracking, we analysed the eye

SUBMITTER: Criado-Boado F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6408451 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature