Perception of Visual Stimuli: Specifics of Eye Movements by Representatives of Different Cultures

The present research explores the impact of native language on perception patterns of monolingual students from China, Russia, Mexico, the USA, and bilingual students from India. The research findings, obtained with verbal protocols, demonstrate statistically significant differences in the way representatives of different cultures perceive information and prove the hypothesis according to which the principles of sentence organization in native languages determine the focus of perception and gaze direction in individuals. In particular, with a = 0.01, 0.05 and 0.005 American students are focused on the object and demonstrate linear gaze direction, whereas Russian, Chinese, Mexican, and Indian students are focused on the field and demonstrate chaotic, unstructured gaze direction. Differences in perception patterns explain the co-existence of local and Western approaches to advertisement layout design in national and multicultural markets around the world, which makes them all in all an important issue for consideration in global advertising.

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