The Influence of Tool Morphology on Visual Attention During the Interaction with Lower Palaeolithic Stone Tools

ABSTRACT

Humans are specialized in eye-hand coordination through a complex visuospatial system. When a tool is observed, the motor areas of the brain are activated and, when grasped, it is sensed as a part of the body. One approach to understanding the underlying mechanisms behind this process regards the analysis of visual attention. Vision influences the spatial interaction with tools and plays a crucial role in the perception of an object’s affordances. In this study, we employ eye-tracking technology to investigate whether Lower Palaeolithic stone tool morphology influences visual attention during visual exploration and manipulation. Our results suggest that the handaxe morphology has a moderate influence on the visual scanning of the tool. In contrast, visual exploration of the chopper is only influenced by the weight of the tool. The different visual behaviours exerted by these two technologies suggest divergences in the visuospatial process underlying the interaction with these tools.

KEYWORDS:

• Handaxes
• choppers
• affordances
• vision
• cognitive archaeology
• eye-tracking

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Flora Ioannidou for her help with the portable eye-tracking. We are extremely grateful to all the volunteers who participated in this survey and to two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (MSG) upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This study is supported by the Junta de Castilla y León and co-financed by European Social Fund [EDU/574/2018], and by the Spanish Government co-financed with ERDF funds [Atapuerca Project; PGC2018-093925-B-C31/32].

Notes on contributors

María Silva-Gago

María Silva-Gago is a PhD Candidate in the National Research Centre on Human Evolution (Burgos, Spain). Her research focuses on the study of the interaction between body and tool, from a cognitive archaeology perspective. The focus of her interest is the visuospatial integration and visual attention applied to Lower Palaeolithic culture, because they represent early stages of the hand-tool evolutionary process.

Annapaola Fedato

Annapaola Fedato is PhD (2021) in Human Evolution. Her research deals with the relationship between the evolution of the human hand and the Lower Palaeolithic stone tools. She evaluates the ergonomic properties of the tools and their impact on the individual haptic perception.

Timothy Hodgson

Timothy Hodgson is a graduate in Psychology and Physiology and PhD (1996) in Psychology. He is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Research Director at the University of Lincoln since 2011. His research is focused on the cognitive and neural systems involved in the control of human eye movements and visual attention.

Marcos Terradillos-Bernal

Marcos Terradillos Bernal (PhD, 2010, University of Burgos, Spain) is a researcher from Universidad Internacional Isabel I de Castilla. His research focuses on the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic culture. He analyses lithic technology with a methodology based on operational chains and experimental archaeology.

Rodrigo Alonso-Alcalde

Rodrigo Alonso-Alcalde is a graduate in Humanism (University of Burgos, Spain), PhD in Human Evolution and a member of Atapuerca Project since 1999, among other research projects. He focused on experimental archaeology. He is currently Head Management of Didactics and Dynamization of the Museum of Human Evolution.

Emiliano Bruner

Emiliano Bruner is a graduate in Biology and PhD (2003) in Animal Biology. Since 2007, he is Research Group Leader in Paleoneurology at the National Research Center for Human Evolution in Burgos, Spain. He employs digital anatomy and computed morphometrics in anthropology and neuroscience, investigating brain and skull evolution in modern humans, living primates and extinct hominids.