Gaze cueing as a function of perceived gaze direction

Previous studies have found that attention is automatically oriented in the direction of other people's gaze. This study directly investigated whether the perceiving gaze direction modulates the orienting of observers' attention. Gaze perception was manipulated by changing the face context (head orientation) of the gaze cue: the perceived gaze angle was increased (or decreased) when the head and gaze are congruent (or incongruent), while the local‐feature information of the eye region was preserved for all stimuli. The results showed that gaze‐cueing effects were enhanced when the perceived gaze direction was averted more toward left or right, and reduced when the perceived gaze direction was closer to direct gaze. The results suggest that gaze‐cueing effects are based on mechanisms specialized for gaze perception, and the magnitude of gaze‐cueing effects was probably a function of the perceived gaze direction.     

注视线索对消费者的影响机制

心理学研究发现眼睛注视线索不仅能够引导社会性注意,还会影响个体对物品的感觉和知觉。注视线索对消费者的影响体现在认知和态度两方面：一方面,模特注视线索能够引导消费者注意,增强消费者对广告或产品的记忆;另一方面,模特注视线索会影响消费者对产品的喜欢程度和购买意愿,以及对服务人员的评价。未来可以从产品、消费者、消费情景及注视线索发起人等方面进一步探索注视线索对消费者心理和行为的影响。     

注视者及观察者因素对注视知觉的影响

注视知觉既包括识别他人对周围环境的注视位置, 也包括对他人是否在注视自己(即直视)的感知。诸多研究表明, 注视知觉过程受来自目光发出者与感知者多种因素的影响。从眼神沟通中不同角色角度出发, 将这些影响因素分为注视者因素和观察者因素。具体而言, 注视者因素主要探讨了眼部及头部物理特征及面孔情绪与吸引力对注视知觉的影响。而观察者因素则探讨了个体的心理或精神障碍、个体当前状态特征及观察者的性别、种族及文化差异对注视知觉的影响。未来研究可以从创新实验设计与任务出发, 探讨注视者刺激的实验材料与观察者特征的临床应用及跨文化差异等方面的问题。     

The influence of familiarity on explicit eye gaze judgement in preschoolers

The current study explores the influence of familiarity on explicit eye gaze judgement in preschoolers. We introduce reaction times for touches as a new measure for children studies. Children aged four–six years saw either their caregiver's face or a stranger's face looking at an object or away from it. Children were asked to touch the face that was looking at the object and reaction times to correct touches were measured. Children reacted faster to strangers' faces than to their caregivers' faces. This may indicate that preschoolers used the face of a stranger more effectively as a source of information about the environment and for this reason detected the eye gaze-object relationship faster. In addition, children's reactions were faster in a nonsocial shape-matching task than in the social eye gaze-judgement task. The applied paradigm is appropriate to further investigate the development and influencing factors of explicit eye gaze judgements in preschoolers.     

Individual differences in face and voice matching abilities: The relationship between accuracy and consistency

Deciding whether two different face photographs or voice samples are from the same person represent fundamental challenges within applied settings. To date, most research has focussed on average performance in these tests, failing to consider individual differences and within‐person consistency in responses. Here, participants completed the same face (Experiment 1) or voice matching test (Experiment 2) on two separate occasions, allowing comparison of overall accuracy across the two timepoints as well as consistency in trial‐level responses. In both experiments, participants were highly consistent in their performances. In addition, we demonstrated a large association between consistency and accuracy, with the most accurate participants also tending to be the most consistent. This is an important result for applied settings in which organisational groups of super‐matchers are deployed in real‐world contexts. Being able to reliably identify these high performers based upon only a single test informs regarding recruitment for law enforcement agencies worldwide.     

人类嗓音加工的神经机制——来自正常视力者和盲人的脑神经证据

人类嗓音作为听觉环境的重要组成部分, 包含了大量副语言信息以帮助识别个体身份, 尤其对于盲人而言, 视觉面孔经验的缺乏使得嗓音信息成为其感知对方个体特征的主要来源。通过结合正常视力者和盲人在嗓音选择性加工和嗓音身份加工方面的研究, 尝试揭示普遍的人类嗓音加工模式以及盲人特异的嗓音加工机制。此外, 与视觉面孔加工相关的梭状回脑区也参与并卷入了两类人群的嗓音加工任务, 以此为基础梳理的视听整合模型和基于去掩蔽效应的跨模态重组假说, 为这两类人群嗓音加工神经基础的差异性提供了相应的解释机制, 未来研究希望可以进一步探究盲人的嗓音加工策略, 以及考察左侧颞上沟/回脑区在嗓音加工中的作用。     

Coordinating cognition: the costs and benefits of shared gaze during collaborative search

Collaboration has its benefits, but coordination has its costs. We explored the potential for remotely located pairs of people to collaborate during visual search, using shared gaze and speech. Pairs of searchers wearing eyetrackers jointly performed an O-in-Qs search task alone, or in one of three collaboration conditions: shared gaze (with one searcher seeing a gaze-cursor indicating where the other was looking, and vice versa), shared-voice (by speaking to each other), and shared-gaze-plus-voice (by using both gaze-cursors and speech). Although collaborating pairs performed better than solitary searchers, search in the shared gaze condition was best of all: twice as fast and efficient as solitary search. People can successfully communicate and coordinate their searching labor using shared gaze alone. Strikingly, shared gaze search was even faster than shared-gaze-plus-voice search; speaking incurred substantial coordination costs. We conclude that shared gaze affords a highly efficient method of coordinating parallel activity in a time-critical spatial task.     

Temporal shifts in eye gaze and facial expressions independently contribute to the perceived attractiveness of unfamiliar faces

ABSTRACT

We investigated whether attractiveness ratings of expressive faces would be affected by gaze shifts towards or away from the observer. In all experiments, effects of facial expression were found, with higher attractiveness ratings to positive over negative expressions, irrespective of effects of gaze-shifts. In the first experiment faces with gaze shifts away from the observer were preferred. However, when the dynamics of the gaze shift was disrupted, by adding an intermediate delay, the effect of direction of gaze shift disappeared. By manipulating the relative duration of each gaze direction during a gaze shift we found higher attractiveness ratings to faces with a longer duration of direct gaze, particularly in the initial exposure to a face. Our findings suggest that although the temporal dynamics of eye gaze and facial expressions influence the aesthetic evaluation of faces, these cues appear to act independently rather than in an integrated manner for social perception.     

Effects of the presence of others on prosocial behavior: Perceived face as mediator

Previous studies have shown that the prosocial behavior of individuals may be promoted or inhibited by the presence of others. This study hypothesizes that prosocial behavior relates to the relationships among present individuals, beyond their number. This study examines whether there is a significant difference in an individual's prosocial behavior in the presence of different types of others (strangers or friends) and whether this effect is mediated by the perception of face. Two studies that used different methods of data collection were conducted. It was found that the presence of friends promotes prosocial behavior more than does the presence of strangers. In addition, perceived face plays a mediating role between the presence of different types of people and prosocial behavior.     

When the face fits: Recognition of celebrities from matching and mismatching faces and voices

The results of two experiments are presented in which participants engaged in a face-recognition or a voice-recognition task. The stimuli were face–voice pairs in which the face and voice were co-presented and were either “matched” (same person), “related” (two highly associated people), or “mismatched” (two unrelated people). Analysis in both experiments confirmed that accuracy and confidence in face recognition was consistently high regardless of the identity of the accompanying voice. However accuracy of voice recognition was increasingly affected as the relationship between voice and accompanying face declined. Moreover, when considering self-reported confidence in voice recognition, confidence remained high for correct responses despite the proportion of these responses declining across conditions. These results converged with existing evidence indicating the vulnerability of voice recognition as a relatively weak signaller of identity, and results are discussed in the context of a person-recognition framework.     

Visual attention and the temporal dynamics of feature integration

Two experiments studied the emergence of bindings between stimulus features (object files) and between stimulus and response features (event files) over time. Choice responses (R2) were signalled by the shape of a stimulus (S2) that followed another stimulus (S1) of the same or different shape, location, and colour. S1 did not require a response (Experiment 1) or trigger a precued simple response (R1) that was or was not repeated by R2 (Experiment 2). Results demonstrate that the mere cooccurrence of stimulus features, and of stimuli and responses, is sufficient to bind their codes. Bindings emerge quickly and remain intact for at least four seconds. Which features are considered depends on their task‐relevance; hence, integration reflects the current attentional set. There was no consistent trend toward higher order interactions as a function of time or of the amount of attention devoted to S1, suggesting that features are not integrated into a single, global superstructure, but enter independent local bindings presumably subserving different functions.     

Stimulus-driven and goal-driven effects on Pavlovian associative reward learning

It has been shown that pure Pavlovian associative reward learning can elicit value-driven attentional capture. However, in previous studies, task-irrelevant and response-independent reward-signalling stimuli hardly competed for visual selective attention. Here we put Pavlovian reward learning to the test by manipulating the extent to which bottom-up (Experiment 1) and top-down (Experiment 2) processes were involved in this type of learning. In Experiment 1, the stimulus, the colour of which signalled the magnitude of the reward given, was presented simultaneously with another randomly coloured stimulus, so that it did not capture attention in a stimulus-driven manner. In Experiment 2, observers performed an attentionally demanding RSVP-task at the centre of the screen to largely tax goal-driven attentional resources, while a task-irrelevant and response-independent stimulus in the periphery signalled the magnitude of the reward given. Both experiments showed value-driven attentional capture in a non-reward test phase, indicating that the reward-signalling stimuli were imbued with value during the Pavlovian reward conditioning phases. This suggests that pure Pavlovian reward conditioning can occur even when (1) competition prevents attention being automatically allocated to the reward-signalling stimulus in a stimulus-driven manner, and (2) attention is occupied by a demanding task, leaving little goal-driven attentional resources available to strategically select the reward-signalling stimulus. The observed value-driven attentional capture effects appeared to be similar for observers who could and could not explicitly report the stimulus–reward contingencies. Altogether, this study provides insight in the conditions under which mere stimulus–reward contingencies in the environment can be learned to affect future behaviour.     

Some effects of alcohol and eye movements on cross-race face learning

This study examines the impact of acute alcohol intoxication on visual scanning in cross-race face learning. The eye movements of a group of white British participants were recorded as they encoded a series of own-and different-race faces, under alcohol and placebo conditions. Intoxication reduced the rate and extent of visual scanning during face encoding, reorienting the focus of foveal attention away from the eyes and towards the nose. Differences in encoding eye movements also varied between own-and different-race face conditions as a function of alcohol. Fixations to both face types were less frequent and more lingering following intoxication, but in the placebo condition this was only the case for different-race faces. While reducing visual scanning, however, alcohol had no adverse effect on memory, only encoding restrictions associated with sober different-race face processing led to poorer recognition. These results support perceptual expertise accounts of own-race face processing, but suggest the adverse effects of alcohol on face learning published previously are not caused by foveal encoding restrictions. The implications of these findings for alcohol myopia theory are discussed.     

工作压力对建设型和防御型建言的差异影响

以往研究普遍从建言行为的建设性意图特征出发, 探讨其关键前因、产生机制和情境因素, 但却较少关注建言行为的工具性目的。基于资源保存理论, 本研究构建了有调节的中介模型以探讨工作压力影响员工建设型建言和防御型建言的作用机制和边界条件。通过对某建筑企业386名员工进行两阶段调查, 结果表明：工作压力与防御型建言存在正向相关关系, 与建设型建言存在负向相关关系, 自我损耗在其中起中介作用; 另外, 领导开明性正向调节自我损耗和建设型建言的负向相关关系, 并正向调节工作压力通过自我损耗影响建设型建言的间接效应。     

The ontogeny of face identity; I. Eight- to 21-week-old infants use internal and external face features in identity

A paradigm was designed to study how infants identify live faces. Eight- to 21-week-old infants were seated comfortably and were presented an adult female, dressed in a white laboratory coat and a white turtle neck sweater, until habituation ensued. The adult then left the room. One minute later either she or an identically garbed confederate returned. Looking time did not increase above habituation levels when the original experimenter returned, but increased substantially when the confederate entered the room. Furthermore, internal features alone could serve as the basis of face identity. Looking times of infants who had habituated to experimenters with masked outer features of hair, ears and neck also markedly increased when a second identically dressed experimenter returned. Identity in this instance could only be based on internal facial characteristics. A second study assessed the contributions of internal and external facial features to identity. Infants were habituated to an experimenter in a short wig. One minute later they saw her again, either in the same short wig or in a long one. Alternatively, they saw a second experimenter wearing either the short wig or the long one. Infants looked longer only to the stranger wearing the long wig. Very brief looking times occurred to the familiar adult, regardless of wig, and to the stranger wearing the familiar wig. This paradigm provides an approach to discover rules used by infants of different ages to process and identify adult faces and to establish the bases of face preference.     

注视-西蒙效应的空间编码机制

采用注视-西蒙范式探讨了注视方向知觉的空间编码机制。实验一让被试采用双手交叉的反应方式,发现注视-西蒙效应并不随反应手的交叉而反转,说明它涉及抽象的空间方向编码,而非基于以手为参照系的半侧优势效应。实验二采用纯音音调辨别任务,发现了典型的注视-西蒙效应,结合实验一视觉通道的结果,说明注视-西蒙效应并非特异于视觉通道,它可能发生在晚期的反应选择阶段,而非早期的知觉阶段。结果支持注视线索能够自动诱发观察者形成抽象的方向表征的观点。     

The face of fear: Effects of eye gaze and emotion on visual attention

We investigated whether a fearful expression enhances the effect of another's gaze in directing the attention of an observer. Participants viewed photographs of faces whose gaze was directed ahead, to the left or to the right. Target letters then appeared unpredictably to the left or right. As expected, targets in the location indicated by gaze were detected more rapidly. In nonanxious volunteers the effects of fearful gaze did not differ from neutral gaze, but fearful expression had a more powerful influence in a selected high anxious group. Attention is thus more likely to be guided by the direction of fearful than neutral gaze, but only in anxiety-prone individuals.     

The face of fear: Effects of eye gaze and emotion on visual attention

We investigated whether a fearful expression enhances the effect of another's gaze in directing the attention of an observer. Participants viewed photographs of faces whose gaze was directed ahead, to the left or to the right. Target letters then appeared unpredictably to the left or right. As expected, targets in the location indicated by gaze were detected more rapidly. In nonanxious volunteers the effects of fearful gaze did not differ from neutral gaze, but fearful expression had a more powerful influence in a selected high anxious group. Attention is thus more likely to be guided by the direction of fearful than neutral gaze, but only in anxiety-prone individuals.     

Spatial interference between gaze direction and gaze location: A study on the eye contact effect

Perceived gaze in faces is an important social cue that influences spatial orienting of attention. In three experiments, we examined whether the social relevance of gaze direction modulated spatial interference in response selection, using three different stimuli: faces, isolated eyes, and symbolic eyes (Experiments 1, 2, and 3, respectively). Each experiment employed a variant of the spatial Stroop paradigm in which face location and gaze direction were put into conflict. Results showed a reverse congruency effect between face location to the right or left of fixation and gaze direction only for stimuli with a social meaning to participants (Experiments 1 and 2). The opposite was observed for the nonsocial stimuli used in Experiment 3. Results are explained as facilitation in response to eye contact.     

In the presence of conflicting gaze cues,fearful expression and eye-size guide attention

Humans are social beings that often interact in multi-individual environments. As such, we are frequently confronted with nonverbal social signals, including eye-gaze direction, from multiple individuals. Yet, the factors that allow for the prioritisation of certain gaze cues over others are poorly understood. Using a modified conflicting gaze paradigm, we tested the hypothesis that fearful gaze would be favoured amongst competing gaze cues. We further hypothesised that this effect is related to the increased sclera exposure, which is characteristic of fearful expressions. Across three experiments, we found that fearful, but not happy, gaze guides observers’ attention over competing non-emotional gaze. The guidance of attention by fearful gaze appears to be linked to increased sclera exposure. However, differences in sclera exposure do not prioritise competing gazes of other types. Thus, fearful gaze guides attention among competing cues and this effect is facilitated by increased sclera exposure – but increased sclera exposure per se does not guide attention. The prioritisation of fearful gaze over non-emotional gaze likely represents an adaptive means of selectively attending to survival-relevant spatial locations.