Examining the brain's perception of face in technology addiction with the digital pareidolia test

In the contemporary digital era, the increasing use of technology and its effects on human cognitive processes have become a significant area of interest for scientific research. This study aimed to investigate the potential effects of technology addiction, a growing public health concern, on individuals' face perception using a digital pareidolia test. Within the scope of the research, participants' technology addiction levels were determined using the Technology Addiction Scale, and participants were categorized based on these levels. In the digital pareidolia test, participants were presented with three different types of visual stimuli: real human faces, pareidolia-inducing images, and scrambled non-target images created by mixing these two visual types. Throughout the test, participants' initial reaction times to each visual stimulus and whether they perceived a face in the images were recorded. The findings revealed a statistically significant decrease in participants reaction times to visual stimuli as their technology addiction level increased. This suggests that individuals with higher addiction levels tend to process visual information more quickly. More importantly, it was found that participants who reported perceiving faces in scrambled images, despite these images not containing any real or pareidolia faces, had significantly higher technology addiction levels. These results provide important evidence that technology addiction may not only affect cognitive processes but also lead to alterations in fundamental perceptual mechanisms, particularly in the tendency to attribute face-like meanings to ambiguous visual inputs. This thesis study is considered a valuable step in understanding the complex perceptual implications of technology addiction on the brain and in laying a foundation for future research in this field.