Data from: Comparison of dogs and humans in visual scanning of social interaction

Previous studies have demonstrated similarities in gazing behaviour of
dogs and humans, but comparisons under similar conditions are rare, and
little is known about dogs' visual attention to social scenes. Here,
we recorded the eye gaze of dogs while they viewed images containing two
humans or dogs either interacting socially or facing away: the results
were compared with equivalent data measured from humans. Furthermore, we
compared the gazing behaviour of two dog and two human populations with
different social experiences: family and kennel dogs; dog experts and
non-experts. Dogs' gazing behaviour was similar to humans: both
species gazed longer at the actors in social interaction than in
non-social images. However, humans gazed longer at the actors in dog than
human social interaction images, whereas dogs gazed longer at the actors
in human than dog social interaction images. Both species also made more
saccades between actors in images representing non-conspecifics, which
could indicate that processing social interaction of non-conspecifics may
be more demanding. Dog experts and non-experts viewed the images very
similarly. Kennel dogs viewed images less than family dogs, but otherwise
their gazing behaviour did not differ, indicating that the basic
processing of social stimuli remains similar regardless of social
experiences.

既往研究已证实犬类与人类的注视行为存在相似性，但在相似实验条件下开展的此类对比研究仍较为匮乏，且学界对犬类针对社交场景的视觉注意力机制尚缺乏深入了解。
本研究中，我们记录了犬类在观看包含两名人类或犬类个体（要么进行社交互动，要么彼此背对）的图像时的眼注视行为，并将所得结果与从人类受试者处采集的等效眼动数据进行对比。此外，我们还对比了两类犬类群体与两类人类群体的注视行为差异，这些群体具备不同的社交经历：分别为家养犬与犬舍饲养犬，以及犬类领域专家与非专家。
犬类的注视行为与人类具有相似性：两类物种均会对处于社交互动场景中的角色注视更长时间，相较于非社交图像而言。但二者存在显著差异：人类会对犬类社交互动场景中的角色注视时长更长，而非人类社交互动场景；犬类则恰好相反，会对人类社交互动场景中的角色注视更久。
两类物种在呈现非同种个体的图像中，角色间的眼跳（saccades）次数也更多，这或许表明处理非同种个体的社交互动信息可能需要更高的认知负荷。犬类领域专家与非专家的图像观看行为极为相似。犬舍饲养犬注视图像的时长短于家养犬，但除此之外二者的注视行为并无显著差异，这表明无论社交经历如何，犬类对社交刺激的基础加工机制仍保持相似。