Plain wording

People who prioritise their own shape most strongly in the perceptual task prioritise it least when judging whose shape it is.

slug decisional-dimension-tradeoffrole empiricalpanel fig9

Linking a shape to the self raises total processing capacity rather than just shifting attentional weight between the shapes.

slug hypothesis-capacity-mechanism-not-weightsrole hypothesispanel hypothesis

Arbitrarily pairing a shape with the self speeds how fast that shape is selected into awareness, with no social judgement needed.

slug hypothesis-self-association-alters-attentional-selectionrole hypothesispanel hypothesis

Social salience and perceptual salience capture attention through independent mechanisms, so their effects simply add up.

slug hypothesis-social-perceptual-independent-mechanismsrole hypothesispanel hypothesis

Bundesen's Theory of Visual Attention splits attention into a total processing capacity and relative weights on each stimulus.

slug interprets-bundesen-tva-frameworkrole literature-contextpanel introduction, methods (TVA model variants), results (fig4, f…

In the second experiment's social decision task, the other-associated shape was processed faster than the self-associated one.

slug other-association-advantage-social-conditionrole empiricalpanel fig6

Making a shape higher in local colour contrast speeds its processing and slows the competing shape.

slug perceptual-salience-6hz-advantagerole controlpanel fig6

For an other-associated shape that is also high-contrast, the two speed-ups should simply add, with no interaction between them.

slug prediction-additive-effects-other-associatedrole predictionpanel prediction

A TVA model that lets processing capacity change with condition should fit the data better than one holding capacity fixed.

slug prediction-capacity-model-outperforms-weights-onlyrole predictionpanel prediction

Requiring an explicit judgement of whose shape it is should shrink or reverse the self-advantage seen in the perceptual task.

slug prediction-self-advantage-attenuated-social-decisionrole predictionpanel prediction

When asked only which shape flickered first, people should process the self-associated shape faster than the other-associated one.

slug prediction-self-advantage-perceptual-decisionrole predictionpanel prediction

In the perceptual task, processing capacity rises and the gain goes to the self-associated shape, not the other-associated one.

slug processing-capacity-rises-perceptual-selfrole empiricalpanel fig5

All claims rest on two preregistered online experiments using temporal order judgements of arbitrarily self-paired shapes.

slug scope-toj-tva-paradigmrole scopepanel scope

When the task is to report whose shape flickered first, the self-associated shape holds no processing advantage.

slug self-prioritization-absent-social-decisionrole empiricalpanel fig5

Self-association speeds attentional selection automatically and early, before any decoding of social identity.

slug self-prioritization-automatic-earlyrole interpretationpanel fig5 (synthesis)

Asked only which shape flickered first, people processed the self-associated shape faster than the other-associated one.

slug self-prioritization-perceptual-decision-automaticrole empiricalpanel fig5

Social salience drives attention more for self-associated shapes, physical salience more for other-associated ones.

slug self-salience-dominates-other-associatedrole synthesispanel fig9 (Tables 1, 2)

A self-associated shape gains less from being made perceptually salient than an other-associated or unassociated shape does.

slug self-salience-reduces-perceptual-benefitrole empiricalpanel fig6, fig7

For other-associated shapes, the social and the perceptual speed-up add up with no interaction between them.

slug self-social-additive-perceptualrole empiricalpanel fig7

Social and perceptual salience capture attention through separate processing streams rather than drawing on one shared resource.

slug social-perceptual-salience-independent-streamsrole interpretationpanel fig7 (synthesis)

Self-prioritisation in the matching task tracks processing gains in the social decision task but not in the perceptual one.

slug spe-matching-correlates-social-decisionrole empiricalpanel fig9

Participants in both experiments matched the self-associated shape faster, confirming they had learned the shape-person pairings.

slug spe-robust-matching-both-experimentsrole controlpanel fig8

A TVA model whose processing capacity is free to change between conditions fits better than one holding capacity fixed.

slug tva-capacity-model-winsrole methodologicalpanel fig4