RT Journal Article
T1 Coevolution of visual behaviour, the material world and social complexity, depicted by the eye-tracking of archaeological objects in humans
A1 Criado Boado, Felipe
A1 Alonso Pablos, Diego
A1 Blanco Rial, Manuel José
A1 Porto Tenreiro, Yolanda
A1 Rodríguez Paz, Anxo
A1 Cabrejas, Elena
A1 Barrio Álvarez, Elena del
A1 Martínez, Luis M.
AB We live in a cluttered visual world that is overfowing 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 diferent socio-cultural contexts. Here we hypothesize that visual responses and material objects should therefore co-evolve to refect changes in social complexity and culture throughout history. Using eye-tracking, we analysed the eye scan paths in response to prehistoric pottery ranging from the Neolithic through to the Iron Age (ca 6000–2000 BP), fnding that each ceramic style caused a particular pattern of visual exploration. Horizontal movements become dominant in earlier periods, while vertical movements are more frequent in later periods that were marked by greater social complexity.
PB Nature Publishing Group
YR 2019
FD 2019
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/21111
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/21111
LA eng
NO Criado-Boado, F., Alonso-Pablos, D., Blanco, M.J. et al. Coevolution of visual behaviour, the material world and social complexity, depicted by the eye-tracking of archaeological objects in humans. Sci Rep 9, 3985 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-39661-w
NO The Research Program on Technologies for Conservation and Valorization of Cultural Heritage (CSD2007-00058, Consolider-Ingenio 2010, Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness) paid for the experimental work. Work in the laboratory of LMM was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Grant BFU2014-58776-r), co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and the Severo Ochoa Program for Centers of Excellence in R&D (SEV-2013-0317)
DS Minerva
RD 3 may 2026