Rorschach inkblots: eye tracking reveals symmetry in eye gaze and focus on human/animal shapes

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From our personal perspective, this study on Rorschach spots and visual attention is really interesting. It is a great example of how a traditional psychological tool that is often considered controversial can be studied using modern, objective methods such as eye tracking. We find it particularly interesting that even with material as ambiguous as inkblots, our eyes follow predictive patterns. Very stimulating is the finding that our attention is strongly focused on the axis of symmetry, and in particular on the areas where people most often see the "heads" and "upper torsos" of people or animals. We think this may have evolutionary roots, which makes sense - quick recognition of living beings and their intentions (often read from facial features and posture) was key to survival. The implications for scoring well on the ROR test because of subliminal attentional biases are very likely. The unique use of gaze density maps (heatmaps) to visualize these patterns in healthy participants is visually compelling and helps to better understand where our attention is automatically directed. In addition, the cumulative conversion of the data into a conditional color formatting in a table based on the so-called superpixel still shows very well the clustering of the test subjects' target interest in a given area. And the idea that these insights into basic human perception can help in the development of artificial intelligence is simply straightforward. The study has its limitations, of course, especially the small sample size and the fact that these were students with no clinical problems. Still, we think this work opens an important door to a deeper understanding of not only where we look, but why we look there, with implications far beyond the Rorschach test itself.

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