Hidden rules of visual perception in the Rorschach test

Despite the ongoing controversy, the Rorschach remains one of the most popular tests among professionals conducting personality assessments. The present study focuses on using eye tracking to obtain gaze density maps of 20 healthy participants on standardized visual material, offering insight into the patterns of visual attention distribution during the examination of standard Rorschach inkblots. Specifically, our analysis shows that gaze density confirms our empirical experience and exhibits considerable symmetry around the central axis of symmetry of the inkblots. In addition, inkblots commonly interpreted as depicting human or animal figures show increased human attention to the ‘head’ and upper ‘torso’ regions. These hypotheses are supported by the significance testing results, except the symmetry hypothesis, which suggests considerable but incomplete symmetry. Interpreting these findings in the context of current cognitive research, we consider them evidence for an evolutionarily rooted system governing automatic perception and attention. These findings could enhance psychologists’ understanding of their responses to the Rorschach test. They may also help in the development of more efficient systems, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence learning. This approximation of knowledge regarding human behavior in visuomotor preferences could also benefit other disciplines.