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.     

视觉搜索任务中直视探测优势的眼动研究

已有研究发现在视觉搜索任务中对直视的探测比斜视更快且更准确, 该现象被命名为“人群中的凝视效应”。大多数研究者将该效应的产生归因于直视会捕获更多的注意。然而, 直视条件下对搜索项的匹配加工更容易也有可能导致对直视的探测比斜视快。此外,已有研究还发现头的朝向会影响对注视方向的探测, 但对于其产生原因缺乏实验验证。本研究采用视觉搜索范式, 运用眼动技术, 把注视探测的视觉搜索过程分为准备阶段、搜索阶段和反应阶段, 对这两个问题进行了探讨。结果显示：对直视的探测优势主要表现在搜索阶段和反应阶段; 在搜索阶段直视的探测优势获益于搜索路径的变短和分心项数量的变少以及分心项平均注视时间的变短; 头的朝向仅在搜索阶段对注视探测产生影响。该结果表明, 在直视探测中对搜索项的匹配加工比在斜视探测中更容易也是导致“人群中的凝视效应”的原因之一; 头的朝向仅仅影响了对注视方向的搜索并没有影响对其的确认加工。     

Effects of peripheral eccentricity and head orientation on gaze discrimination

Visual search tasks support a special role for direct gaze in human cognition, while classic gaze judgement tasks suggest the congruency between head orientation and gaze direction plays a central role in gaze perception. Moreover, whether gaze direction can be accurately discriminated in the periphery using covert attention is unknown. In the present study, individual faces in frontal and in deviated head orientations with a direct or an averted gaze were flashed for 150 ms across the visual field; participants focused on a centred fixation while judging the gaze direction. Gaze discrimination speed and accuracy varied with head orientation and eccentricity. The limit of accurate gaze discrimination was less than ±6° eccentricity. Response times suggested a processing facilitation for direct gaze in fovea, irrespective of head orientation, however, by ±3° eccentricity, head orientation started biasing gaze judgements, and this bias increased with eccentricity. Results also suggested a special processing of frontal heads with direct gaze in central vision, rather than a general congruency effect between eye and head cues. Thus, while both head and eye cues contribute to gaze discrimination, their role differs with eccentricity.     

The development and flexibility of gaze alternations in bonobos and chimpanzees

Infants’ early gaze alternations are one of their first steps towards a sophisticated understanding of the social world. This ability, to gaze alternate between an object of interest and another individual also attending to that object, has been considered foundational to the development of many complex social‐cognitive abilities, such as theory of mind and language. However, to understand the evolution of these abilities, it is important to identify whether and how gaze alternations are used and develop in our closest living relatives, bonobos (Pan paniscus) and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Here, we evaluated the development of gaze alternations in a large, developmental sample of bonobos (N = 17) and chimpanzees (N = 35). To assess the flexibility of ape gaze alternations, we tested whether they produced gaze alternations when requesting food from a human who was either visually attentive or visually inattentive. Similarly to human infants, both bonobos and chimpanzees produced gaze alternations, and did so more frequently when a human communicative partner was visually attentive. However, unlike humans, who gaze alternate frequently from early in development, chimpanzees did not begin to gaze alternate frequently until adulthood. Bonobos produced very few gaze alternations, regardless of age. Thus, it may be the early emergence of gaze alternations, as opposed gaze alternations themselves, that is derived in the human lineage. The distinctively early emergence of gaze alternations in humans may be a critical underpinning for the development of complex human social‐cognitive abilities.     

The development of mentalistic gaze understanding

Very young infants are sensitive to and follow other people's gaze. By 18 months children, like chimpanzees, apparently represent the spatial relationship between viewer and object viewed: they can follow eye‐direction alone, and react appropriately if the other's gaze is blocked by occluding barriers. This paper assesses when children represent this relationship as psychological in nature. Studies examining sensitivity to gaze, gaze following, and explicit judgement of gaze direction are reviewed. The evidence suggests that neither infants nor chimpanzees represent gaze as psychological. It is concluded that mentalistic gaze understanding develops from the age of 3 years. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Observing shared attention modulates gaze following

Humans’ tendency to follow others’ gaze is considered to be rather resistant to top-down influences. However, recent evidence indicates that gaze following depends on prior eye contact with the observed agent. Does observing two people engaging in eye contact also modulate gaze following? Participants observed two faces looking at each other or away from each other before jointly shifting gaze to one of two locations. Targets appeared either at the cued location or at the non-cued location. In three experiments gaze cueing effects (faster responses to objects appearing at the cued location) were found only when the two faces had looked at each other before shifting gaze. In contrast, no effects of gaze following were observed when the two faces had looked away from each other. Thus, the attentional relation between observed people modulates whether their gaze is followed.     

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.     

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.     

视频教学中教师的眼神注视能否促进学习?

教师的眼神注视是在视频学习中重要但易被忽视的元素。以往理论存在两种对立的观点：其中准社会交往理论和社会代理理论支持教师的眼神注视促进学习; 而基于多媒体学习认知理论与认知负荷理论认为教师的眼神注视会阻碍学习效果。通过汇总以往实证研究得出如下结论：首先, 教师的眼神注视对学习效果具有小的促进效应, 即教师的眼神注视能够促进学习者的保持成绩(d_保持 = 0.41)和迁移成绩(d_迁移 = 0.39); 其次, 在主观体验上, 教师的眼神注视对准社会交往也具有小的促进效应(d_{准社会交往} = 0.35), 而教师的眼神注视对认知负荷影响十分微弱(d_认知负荷 = -0.02); 最后, 在对学习材料的注意加工上, 教师的眼神注视总体上影响比较微弱(d_注视时间 = 0.06, d_{首次注视时间} = -0.15)。未来研究需要对不同注视类型、先前知识经验、学习材料性质以及认知神经方法进一步探究。     

Intimacy in response to direct gaze

Believing that they were participating in a study of encounter groups, male and female subjects were encouraged to deliver a personally revealing monologue to a same-sex listener whose visual behavior had been “programmed” by the experimenter. In the four experimental conditions, designed to explore the role of gaze as a stimulus, as a potential reinforcer, and as a source of feedback, the listener provided (a) continuous direct gaze; (b) direct gaze contingent upon intimate statements; (c) continuous gaze aversion; or (d) gaze aversion contingent upon intimate statements. The intimacy of the speaker's monologue was rated by a “blind” observer, the listener, and the speaker himself. Direct gaze, whether constant or contingent, appeared to promote intimacy between females and reticence between males, while gaze avoidance had the opposite effects. The only raters who disagreed with this assessment were the male speakers, who felt that they had been most intimate in the two direct gaze conditions. Positive feelings including liking for the listener and task satisfaction also were associated both with self-revelation and with direct gaze among females but not among males.     

Subliminal gaze cues increase preference levels for items in the gaze direction

Another individual’s gaze automatically shifts an observer’s attention to a location. This reflexive response occurs even when the gaze is presented subliminally over a short period. Another’s gaze also increases the preference level for items in the gaze direction; however, it was previously unclear if this effect occurs when the gaze is presented subliminally. This study showed that the preference levels for nonsense figures looked at by a subliminal gaze were significantly greater than those for items that were subliminally looked away from (Task 1). Targets that were looked at by a subliminal gaze were detected faster (Task 2); however, the participants were unable to detect the gaze direction (Task 3). These results indicate that another individual’s gaze automatically increases the preference levels for items in the gaze direction without conscious awareness.     

I see what you’re saying: Voice signals influence children’s judgments of direct and averted gaze

Adults use gaze and voice signals as cues to the mental and emotional states of others. We examined the influence of voice cues on children’s judgments of gaze. In Experiment 1, 6-year-olds, 8-year-olds, and adults viewed photographs of faces fixating the center of the camera lens and a series of positions to the left and right and judged whether gaze was direct or averted. On each trial, participants heard the participant-directed voice cue (e.g., “I see you”), an object-directed voice cue (e.g., “I see that”), or no voice. In 6-year-olds, the range of directions of gaze leading to the perception of eye contact (the cone of gaze) was narrower for trials with object-directed voice cues than for trials with participant-directed voice cues or no voice. This effect was absent in 8-year-olds and adults, both of whom had a narrower cone of gaze than 6-year-olds. In Experiment 2, we investigated whether voice cues would influence adults’ judgments of gaze when the task was made more difficult by limiting the duration of exposure to the face. Adults’ cone of gaze was wider than in Experiment 1, and the effect of voice cues was similar to that observed in 6-year-olds in Experiment 1. Together, the results indicate that object-directed voice cues can decrease the width of the cone of gaze, allowing more adult-like judgments of gaze in young children, and that voice cues may be especially effective when the cone of gaze is wider because of immaturity (Experiment 1) or limited exposure (Experiment 2).     

Does perceived direct gaze boost detection in adults and children with and without autism? The stare-in-the-crowd effect revisited

This study extended that of von Grünau and Anston (1995) and explored whether perceived direct gaze is easily detected by individuals with and without autism, utilizing a visual-search paradigm. Participants detected target faces with either direct gaze or averted gaze. Laterally averted faces were used to eliminate the involvement of lower perceptual characteristics such as symmetry, which were inherent with the “straight gaze” used by von Grünau and Anston. Both typically developed adults and children detected targets with direct gaze more quickly than those with averted gaze, but face inversion distorted this asymmetrical performance, suggesting the contribution of configurative facial processing. In contrast, children with autism were not affected by the gaze direction presented by realistic facial stimuli. They were, however, faster to detect straight gaze defined solely by local features, which suggests that their impairment might be specific to the detection of direct gaze presented within a facial context.     

Emotional modulation of attention orienting by gaze varies with dynamic cue sequence

ABSTRACT

Recent gaze cueing studies using dynamic cue sequences have reported increased attention orienting by gaze with faces expressing fear, surprise or anger. Here, we investigated whether the type of dynamic cue sequence used impacted the magnitude of this effect. When the emotion was expressed before or concurrently with gaze shift, no modulation of gaze-oriented attention by emotion was seen. In contrast, when the face cue averted gaze before expressing an emotion (as if reacting to the object after first localizing it), the gaze orienting effect was clearly increased for fearful, surprised and angry faces compared to neutral faces. Thus, the type of dynamic sequence used, and in particular the order in which the gaze shift and the facial expression are presented, modulate gaze-oriented attention, with maximal modulation seen when the expression of emotion follows gaze shift.     

Preferred gaze direction and the vergence system at rest]

In two experiments the effects of binocular vergence, head tilt, and prolonged gaze inclination on the preferred vertical gaze direction were studied. Concurrently, dark vergence was measured to test a hypothesis on the effect that binocular vergence has on the preferred vertical direction of gaze. The previously reported influence of observation distance on the preferred gaze inclination was replicated. When the head was tilted backward, the preferred gaze inclination was lower and the effect of observation distance was reduced; when the head was tilted forward, the preferred gaze inclination was higher and the effect of observation distance was increased. After prolonged upward or downward gaze inclination the preferred vertical gaze direction was shifted up or down, respectively, while the effect of observation distance remained constant. Overall the change of the preferred vertical direction of gaze upon binocular fixation of near stimuli was accompanied by a reduced discrepancy between convergence and the resting state of the vergence system; additional implications of the hypothesis on the relation between individual resting vergence and the effect of observation distance on the preferred inclination of gaze could not be substantiated.     

Sex differences for the recognition of direct versus averted gaze faces

Gaze direction plays a central role in face recognition. Previous research suggests that faces with direct gaze are better remembered than faces with averted gaze. We compared recognition of faces with direct versus averted gaze in male versus female participants. A total of 52 adults (23 females, 29 males) and 46 children (25 females, 21 males) completed a computerised task that assessed their recognition of faces with direct gaze and faces with averted gaze. Adult male participants showed superior recognition of faces with direct gaze compared to faces with averted gaze. There was no difference between recognition of direct and averted gaze faces for the adult female participants. Children did not demonstrate this sex difference; rather, both male and female youth participants showed better recognition of faces with direct gaze compared to averted gaze. A large body of previous research has revealed superior recognition of faces with direct, compared to averted gaze. However, relatively few studies have examined sex differences. Our findings suggest that gaze direction has differential effects on face recognition for adult males and females, but not for children. These findings have implications for previous explanations of better recognition for direct versus averted gaze.     

A direct link between gaze perception and social attention

How information is exchanged between the cognitive mechanisms responsible for gaze perception and social attention is unclear. These systems could be independent; the "gaze cueing" effect could emerge from the activation of a general-purpose attentional mechanism that is ignorant of the social nature of the gaze cue. Alternatively, orienting to social gaze direction might be directly determined by the operation of cognitive mechanisms specifically dedicated to gaze perception. This second notion is the dominant assumption in the literature, but there is little direct support for this account. Here, we systematically manipulated observers' perception of gaze direction by implementing a gaze adaptation paradigm. Gaze cueing was reduced only in conditions where perception of specific averted gaze stimuli was impaired (Experiment 1). Adaptation to a pointing stimulus failed to impact gaze cueing (Experiment 2). Overall, these data suggest a direct link between the specific operation of gaze perception mechanisms and the consequential orienting of attention.     

Mutual eye gaze facilitates person categorization for typically developing children, but not for children with autism

Previous investigations of gaze processing in autism have demonstrated a pattern of intact and impaired performance. Although individuals with autism are capable of discriminating another’s gaze, they fail to interpret gaze direction, especially within the context of sociocommunicative (i.e., mentalistic) interactions. Extending this general line of inquiry, we explored whether typical children and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) were influenced by gaze direction in a task that demanded a core person-related judgment—namely, sex categorization. The results revealed that typically developing school-aged children were faster to classify faces by sex when targets displayed direct rather than averted gaze, or when the eyes were closed. This was not the case, however, for children with ASD, whose responses were unaffected by gaze direction. These findings suggest that difficulties in gaze processing in autism extend beyond sociocommunicative inferences to include basic person-perception judgments.     

Automatic spatial coding of perceived gaze direction is revealed by the Simon effect

In a typical Simon task, the (irrelevant) spatial position of the stimulus interferes with the processing of the salient characteristic (e.g., color). We used the Simon effect to investigate the automatic processing of gaze cues. We show that a simple drawing of schematic eyes automatically generates a spatially defined code of gaze direction. Although completely irrelevant to the task, direction of gaze influenced reaction times in a spatially selective two-choice discrimination based on eye color. Moreover, in one experiment employing an orthogonal manipulation of stimulus position and gaze direction, we found that coding of gaze direction is independent of stimulus spatial coding. Our finding of a “gazedirection Simon effect” is congruent with the hypothesis that gaze direction is coded by a specialized mechanism.     

Direct gaze,eye movements,and covert and overt social attention processes

The present study is a replication and extension of previous research examining the effects of others’ gaze direction and gaze shifts on both participants’ (N = 32) manual responses, as an indicator of covert processes, and their visual attention, as an indicator of overt processes, within an experimental response time (RT) paradigm, under both fixed- and free-viewing instructions. Participants viewed arrays of faces displaying direct or averted gaze, which shifted or held their gaze, concurrent with the presentation of a target letter that participants had to identify overlaid on one face, all while their gaze was recorded with an eye-tracking system. Participants’ RTs and eye movements both revealed faster responses when the target face displayed either direct or shifted gaze, and especially when its gaze had shifted from averted to direct, though these effects were modulated by the viewing instructions. Thus, the findings replicate and extend previous research by revealing that direct gaze and dynamic motion onset affect both covert and overt attention.