Hyper-volume of eye-contact perception and social anxiety traits

Eye-contact facilitates effective interpersonal exchange during social interactions, but can be a considerable source of anxiety for individuals with social phobia. However, the relationship between the fundamental spatial range of eye-contact perception and psychiatric traits is, to date, unknown. In this study, I analyzed the eye-contact spatial response bias and the associated pupil response, and how they relate to traits of social interaction disorders. In a face-to-face situation, 21 pairs of subjects were randomly assigned to be either viewers or perceivers. The viewer was instructed to gaze either at the perceiver’s eyes, or at a predetermined point, and the perceiver was asked to indicate whether eye-contact had been established or not. I found that the perceptual volume is much larger than the actual volume of eye-contact, and that the subjective judgment of eye-contact elicited greater pupil dilation in the perceiver. Furthermore, the relationship between behavioral performance and social anxiety traits was identified. These findings provide new indications that internal traits related to lower social anxiety are potentially related to a restriction of spatial response bias for eye-contact.     

Eye contact does not facilitate detection in children with autism

Eye contact is crucial in achieving social communication. Deviant patterns of eye contact behavior are found in individuals with autism, who suffer from severe social and communicative deficits. This study used a visual oddball paradigm to investigate whether children with high functioning autism have difficulty in detecting mutual gaze under experimental conditions. The results revealed that children with autism were no better at detecting direct gaze than at detecting averted gaze, which is unlike normal children. This suggests that whereas typically developing children have the ability to detect direct gaze, children with autism do not. This might result in altered eye-contact behavior, which hampers subsequent development of social and communicative skills.     

Who is looking at me? The cone of gaze widens in social phobia

Gaze direction is an important cue that regulates social interactions and facilitates joint attention. Although humans are very accurate in determining gaze directions in general, they have a surprisingly liberal criterion for the presence of mutual gaze. Using an established psychophysical task that required observers to adjust the eyes of a virtual head to the margins of the area of mutual gaze, we examined whether the resulting cone of gaze is altered in people with social phobia. It turned out that during presence of a second virtual person, the gaze cone's width was specifically enlarged in patients with social phobia as compared to healthy controls. The size of this effect was correlated with the severity of social anxiety. As this effect was found for merely virtual lookers, it seems to be a fundamental mechanism rather than a specific effect related to the fear of being observed and evaluated by others.     

The determinants of the symmetry or asymmetry of social orientation schemata

Both the distances and the angles at which doll pairs are placed have been shown to vary according to the type of social encounter represented by the figures. The present study investigated the conditions under which asymmetrical orientations occur. It was argued that figure orientations reflect the need for and tolerance of eyecontact on the part of the interactors they represent, and that, therefore, asymmetrical orientation patterns would occur in an encounter in which one interactor had high eye-contact needs or tolerance, and the other low eye-contact needs and tolerance. Subjects placed doll pairs to represent three situations in which one interactor was expected to have a high level of direct gaze and the other a low level (asymmetrical situations), and three situations in which eye-contact needs and tolerance were the same for both interactors (symmetrical situations). Orientation asymmetry was considerably greater in the asymmetrical situations than in the symmetrical situation, and in the case of placements representing the asymmetrical situations the high eye-contact interactor was almost always the more directly facing of the two figures.     

Vertical gaze direction and the resting posture of the eyes

With horizontal gaze, the resting posture of binocular vergence typically corresponds to a distance of about 1 m. The effect of vertical direction of gaze on this basic resting posture was investigated. The dark vergence of twenty-four subjects was measured while they fixated a dim monocular light-point at vertical directions ranging from -45 degree (lowered) to +30 degrees (elevated). In one condition, gaze was varied by changes in eye position with the head held upright; in a second condition, gaze was varied by changes in head inclination with the eyes held in constant (horizontal) position with respect to the head. In both conditions, dark vergence shifted in the convergent (nearer) direction with lowered gaze and in the divergent (farther) direction with elevated gaze. The effect of varied eye inclination was larger, more variable across subjects, and more stable over time than that of varied head inclination. These findings indicate that multiple mechanisms contribute to gaze-related variations of the resting posture of the eyes. They may help to explain the variations of space perception and visual fatigue that are observed with different gaze inclinations.     

Gaze as depicted in Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring

Ten observers viewed Vermeer's painting Girl With a Pearl Earring and estimated her direction of gaze when her eyes were exposed together and separately. The observers also viewed the painting when her eyes were digitally replaced by those of a real person. The authors found that Vermeer painted the girl's eyes with a precision that was near the limits of visual acuity. Also, Vermeer included 3 gaze illusions, none of which researchers have documented as known in Vermeer's time: (a) when a model whose head is turned to one side gazes at an observer, there is an illusion that she is looking to the side of the observer away from the direction of her head turn; (b) when a model's eyes are viewed separately, they appear to gaze outward relative to each other; and (c) when both of a model's eyes are viewed, the perceived direction of gaze follows that of the nearer eye.     

Are you looking at me? Measuring the cone of gaze

The processing of gaze cues plays an important role in social interactions, and mutual gaze in particular is relevant for natural as well as video-mediated communications. Mutual gaze occurs when an observer looks at or in the direction of the eyes of another person. The authors chose the metaphor of a cone of gaze to characterize this range of gaze directions that constitutes "looking at" another person. In 4 experiments using either a real person or a virtual head, the authors investigated the influences of observer distance, head orientation, visibility of the eyes, and the presence of a 2nd head on the perceived direction and width of the gaze cone. The direction of the gaze cone was largely affected by all experimental manipulations, whereas its angular width remained comparatively stable.     

How the Eyes Tell Lies: Social Gaze During a Preference Task

Social attention is thought to require detecting the eyes of others and following their gaze. To be effective, observers must also be able to infer the person's thoughts and feelings about what he or she is looking at, but this has only rarely been investigated in laboratory studies. In this study, participants' eye movements were recorded while they chose which of four patterns they preferred. New observers were subsequently able to reliably guess the preference response by watching a replay of the fixations. Moreover, when asked to mislead the person guessing, participants changed their looking behavior and guessing success was reduced. In a second experiment, naïve participants could also guess the preference of the original observers but were unable to identify trials which were lies. These results confirm that people can spontaneously use the gaze of others to infer their judgments, but also that these inferences are open to deception.     

The effect of gaze cues on attention to print advertisements

Print advertisements often employ images of humans whose gaze may be focussed on an object or region within the advertisement. Gaze cues are powerful factors in determining the focus of our attention, but there have been no systematic studies exploring the impact of gaze cues on attention to print advertisements. We tracked participants' eyes whilst they read an on‐screen magazine containing advertisements in which the model either looked at the product being advertised or towards the viewer. When the model's gaze was directed at the product, participants spent longer looking at the product, the brand logo and the rest of the advertisement compared to when the model's gaze was directed towards the viewer. These results demonstrate that the focus of reader's attention can be readily manipulated by gaze cues provided by models in advertisements, and that these influences go beyond simply drawing attention to the cued area of the advertisement. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Females, but not males, show greater pupillary response to direct- than deviated-gaze faces

Under suitable conditions, pupillary dilation is a reliable index of processing activity. Pupil size was tracked in male and female observers following the presentation of face stimuli for an age-judgment task. The eyes on the faces were either directed towards the observer or deviated to the side. Pupil dilation accompanied processing of the faces, but female observers showed significantly more sustained pupil dilation when viewing direct- than deviated-gaze faces over the period 3 to 7 s after stimulus onset, regardless of stimulus sex. In contrast, male observers did not show a consistent pattern in response to either the gaze or sex of the face stimuli. These findings indicate a sex difference in the processing of gaze direction and suggest that females, but not males, apply increased effort to processing socially relevant (direct-gaze) than irrelevant (deviated-gaze) faces. They also demonstrate that pupillary measurement can potentially provide new insights into the processing of even visual input, provided reflexes are sufficiently controlled.     

Assignment of Leadership Role Changes Performers' Gaze During Piano Duo Performances

This study investigated modulation of gaze and synchronization in piano duos under manipulation of the leader-follower relationship. Three pairs of pianists played under 3 conditions: reversed leader/follower roles and one where neither was leader or follower. The primo and second players could see one another through a glass window but could hear only the sounds of the pianos. We analyzed each performer's gaze toward the coperformer frame by frame and measured asynchrony between performers. The main findings are that (a) gaze was altered in the presence of leadership assignments-followers' and leaders' gaze durations lengthened and shortened, respectively; (b) mutual gaze just before tempo changes enhanced synchronization regardless of leadership condition; and (c) the asynchronies of tone onset at the moment of a tempo change under the leader/follower conditions did not significantly differ from that under the control condition.     

Seeing her looking at you: acquaintance and variation in the judgment of gaze depth

The acquaintance of subject and looker as well as the depth of gaze affected male subjects' judgments of a female assistant's looking behavior. In a situation ruling out visual interaction, eye-contact gazes were located no more accurately than other gazes. Nevertheless, although gaze depths were not accurately discriminated, gazes deviating vertically and horizontally, to the edge of the head and just beyond the head, were located with some accuracy. The pattern of errors was toward the head and away from the body. Acquaintance produces a stronger bias away from the body, and may produce other interaction-facilitating biases.     

Arrows don’t look at you: Qualitatively different attentional mechanisms triggered by gaze and arrows

Eye gaze conveys rich information concerning the states of mind of others, playing a critical role in social interactions, signaling internal states, and guiding others’ attention. On the basis of its social significance, some researchers have proposed that eye gaze may represent a unique attentional stimulus. However, contrary to this notion, the majority of the literature has shown indistinguishable attentional effects when eye gaze and arrows have been used as cues. Taking a different approach, in this study we aimed at finding qualitative attentional differences between gazes and arrows when they were used as targets instead of as cues. We used a spatial Stroop task, in which participants were required to identify the direction of eyes or arrows presented to the left or the right of a fixation point. The results showed that the two types of stimuli led to opposite spatial interference effects, with arrows producing faster reaction times when the stimulus direction was congruent with the stimulus position (a typical spatial Stroop effect), and eye gaze producing faster reaction times when it was incongruent (a “reversed” spatial Stroop effect). This reversed Stroop is interpreted as an eye-contact effect, therefore revealing the unique nature of eyes as special social-attention stimuli.     

Eye-contact perception in schizophrenia: relationship with symptoms and socioemotional functioning

Accurately perceiving self-referential social signals, particularly eye contact, is critical to social adaptation. Schizophrenia is often accompanied by deficits in social cognition, but it is unclear whether this includes gaze discrimination deficits. This study investigated whether eye-contact perception is preserved or impaired and if it is related to symptoms and broader socioemotional functioning in schizophrenia. Twenty-six participants with schizophrenia (SCZ) and 23 healthy controls (HC) made eye-contact judgments for faces in varying gaze direction (from averted to direct in ten 10% increments), head orientation (forward, 30° averted), and emotion (neutral, fearful). Psychophysical analyses for forward faces showed that SCZ began endorsing eye contact with weaker eye-contact signal and their eye-contact perception was less of a dichotomous function, as compared with HC. SCZ were more likely than HC to endorse eye contact when gaze was ambiguous, and this overperception of eye contact was modulated by head orientation and emotion. Overperception of eye contact was associated with more severe negative symptoms. Decreased categorical gaze perception explained variance of socioemotional deficits in schizophrenia after taking basic neurocognition into consideration, suggesting the relationship was not solely due to a general deficit problem. These results were discussed in relation to the nature of categorical gaze perception and its significance to clinical and functional presentations of schizophrenia.     

Visual interaction in a group of introverts and extraverts

Ten introverts and 10 extraverts were selected from a student population on the bask of their responses to the E.P.I. The groups contained 5 men and 5 women and were matched for Neuroticism. Each subject took part in two 4-minute conversations, one with a male confederate, one with a female confederate. The same two confederates were used throughout the experiment, and no attempt was made to programme any aspect of their behaviour. Two trained observers, who sat behind a one way screen situated close to the speakers, recorded the visual and speech behaviour of both subject and confederate by means of a four-channel event-recorder. The recordings were made for the last 3 minutes of each interaction. Extraverts Looked more frequently than introverts, but there were no differences between the two groups in the proportions of time spent in Looking and eye-contact, or in the mean length of Looks. Extraverts also spoke more frequently than introverts, a finding which may complement that for the number of Looks. The findings could not be explained by the behaviour of the confederates, since they behaved consistently across the two groups of subjects. The experiment is discussed with particular reference to Mobbs (1968) and Kendon and Cook (1969). Comparisons of methodology are made.     

The role of gaze direction and mutual exclusivity in guiding 24‐month‐olds' word mappings

In these studies, we examined how a default assumption about word meaning, the mutual exclusivity assumption and an intentional cue, gaze direction, interacted to guide 24‐month‐olds' object‐word mappings. In Expt 1, when the experimenter's gaze was consistent with the mutual exclusivity assumption, novel word mappings were facilitated. When the experimenter's eye‐gaze was in conflict with the mutual exclusivity cue, children demonstrated a tendency to rely on the mutual exclusivity assumption rather than follow the experimenter's gaze to map the label to the object. In Expt 2, children relied on the experimenter's gaze direction to successfully map both a first label to a novel object and a second label to a familiar object. Moreover, infants mapped second labels to familiar objects to the same degree that they mapped first labels to novel objects. These findings are discussed with regard to children's use of convergent and divergent cues in indirect word mapping contexts.     

The positive and negative of human expertise in gaze perception

Judging where others look is crucial for many social and cognitive functions. Past accounts of gaze perception emphasize geometrical cues from the seen eye. Human eyes have a unique morphology, with a large white surround (sclera) to the dark iris that may have evolved to enhance gaze processing. Here we show that the contrast polarity of seen eyes has a powerful influence on gaze perception. Adult observers are highly inaccurate in judging gaze direction for images of human eyes with negative contrast polarity (regardless of whether the surrounding face is positive or negative), even though negative images of eyes preserve the geometric properties of positives that are judged accurately. The detrimental effect of negative contrast polarity is much larger for gaze perception than for other directional judgements (e.g. judging which way a head is turned). These results suggest an 'expert' system for gaze perception, which always treats the darker region of a seen eye as the part that does the looking.     

Fixational eye movements are not an index of covert attention

The debate about the nature of fixational eye movements has revived recently with the claim that microsaccades reflect the direction of attentional shifts. A number of studies have shown an association between the direction of attentional cues and the direction of microsaccades. We sought to determine whether microsaccades in attentional tasks are causally related to behavior. Is reaction time (RT) faster when microsaccades point toward the target than when they point in the opposite direction? We used a dual-Purkinje-image eyetracker to measure gaze position while 3 observers (2 of the authors, 1 naive observer) performed an attentional cuing task under three different response conditions: saccadic localization, manual localization, and manual detection. Critical trials were those on which microsaccades moved away from the cue. On these trials, RTs were slower when microsaccades were oriented toward the target than when they were oriented away from the target. We obtained similar results for direction of drift. Cues, not fixational eye movements, predicted behavior.     

Male/Female Gaze in Same-Sex and Mixed-Sex Dyads Gender-Linked Differences and Mutual Influence

In this study, 108 university students (54 men and 54 women) were each videotaped in two 8-minute problem-solving dyadic interactions: (1) same-sex, and (2) mixed-sex. Trained observers coded the interactions for simultaneous, moment-to-moment gaze and talk behavior of both interactants. MANOVA results for three dyad types (male/male, female/female, and male/female) measured on 10 dyad gaze/talk variables showed that F/F dyads exhibited more mutual gaze/mutual talk and mutual gaze/mutual silence than either M/M or M/F dyads. F/F dyads exhibited less one gazes/same talks and mutual avert/one talks than either M/M or M/F dyads. No differences were found between M/M and M/F dyads on any variable. Analyses of individual change scores from same-sex to mixed-sex dyads indicated that the women in the M/F dyads converged to the male behavior in that dyad condition, whereas the men remained unchanged. The results are discussed in terms of speech accommodation theory.     

A Markovian model of adult gaze behavior

This study was designed to test a proposed Markov chain model of adult gaze behaviors. Hypotheses for an individual's gaze behavior, dyadic visual interaction, and dyadic gaze states within an independent decision model were examined. Subjects were assigned to a same-or mixed-sex dyad and instructed to converse for approximately 5 min about life at the university. Video tapes of the conversations were unobtrusively obtained and scored by an observer of gaze behaviors for 4^1/2 min in 24 pairs of subjects: eight male, eight female, and eight mixed-sex dyads. The results indicate that the occurrence of a gaze behavior is dependent on a 0.6-sec history, but infrequently prolonged Looking behaviors were found to occur slightly more often than Markovian formulations predicted. The mathematical properties of gaze behavior demonstrated in this experiment are congruent with those of dialogic time patterns, suggesting a regularity in the gross temporal organization of nonverbal communications.