Queues, Crowds, and Angry Mobs: Face Identification Under Distraction in a Virtual Airport

Matthew C. Fysh; Edward Baker; Jodie Rockett; John Allen; Cade Andrew McCall; A. Mike Burton; Markus Bindemann

doi:10.1177/17470218231203939

Queues, Crowds, and Angry Mobs: Face Identification Under Distraction in a Virtual Airport

Matthew C. Fysh, Edward Baker, Jodie Rockett, John Allen, Cade Andrew McCall, A. Mike Burton, Markus Bindemann^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

In visual environments, selective attention must be employed to focus on task-relevant stimuli. A key question here concerns the extent to which other stimuli within the visual field influence target processing. In this study we ask whether face identity matching is subject to similar effects from irrelevant stimuli in the visual field, specifically task-irrelevant people. While most previous studies rely on highly controlled face and body stimuli presented in isolation, here we use a more realistic environment. Participants take the role of passport officers and must match a person’s face to their photo-ID while other people appear in the background, waiting to be processed. Presenting an interactive virtual environment on screen (Experiment 1 and 2) or in immersive VR (Experiment 3), we generally found no evidence for distraction from background people on face-matching accuracy. However, when immersed in VR, an angry crowd in the background increased matching speed, while not affecting accuracy. We discuss the theoretical implications of these results and their potential importance in practical settings.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1169-1178
Journal	The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
Volume	77
Issue number	6
Early online date	8 Nov 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218231203939
Publication status	Published - Jun 2024

Bibliographical note

Access to Document

10.1177/17470218231203939Licence: CC BY

Queues, crowds, and angry mobs: Face identification under distraction in a virtual airport
© Experimental Psychology Society 2023
Final published version, 873 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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title = "Queues, Crowds, and Angry Mobs: Face Identification Under Distraction in a Virtual Airport",

abstract = "In visual environments, selective attention must be employed to focus on task-relevant stimuli. A key question here concerns the extent to which other stimuli within the visual field influence target processing. In this study we ask whether face identity matching is subject to similar effects from irrelevant stimuli in the visual field, specifically task-irrelevant people. While most previous studies rely on highly controlled face and body stimuli presented in isolation, here we use a more realistic environment. Participants take the role of passport officers and must match a person{\textquoteright}s face to their photo-ID while other people appear in the background, waiting to be processed. Presenting an interactive virtual environment on screen (Experiment 1 and 2) or in immersive VR (Experiment 3), we generally found no evidence for distraction from background people on face-matching accuracy. However, when immersed in VR, an angry crowd in the background increased matching speed, while not affecting accuracy. We discuss the theoretical implications of these results and their potential importance in practical settings.",

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