Trial-by-trial modulations in the orienting of attention elicited by gaze and arrow cues

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 543-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Ciardo ◽  
Paola Ricciardelli ◽  
Cristina Iani
Keyword(s):  
Simon Effect ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Simon Task ◽  
Preceding Trial ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Conflict Task ◽  
Gaze Cueing ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Cueing Task ◽  
Gaze Cuing

Recent findings suggested that the orienting of attention towards gazed at locations (i.e., the gaze cueing effect) could result from the conflict emerging in incongruent trials between the spatial information conveyed by gaze direction and the target spatial position. In two experiments, we assessed this hypothesis by investigating whether this effect is influenced by the same trial-by-trial modulations that are reported in a spatial conflict task, i.e., the Simon task. In Experiment 1, we compared the trial-by-trial modulations emerging in the Simon task with those emerging in a gaze cueing task, while in Experiment 2, we compared gaze and arrows cues. Trial-by-trial modulations were evident in both tasks. In the Simon task, correspondence sequence affected both corresponding and noncorresponding responses, this resulting in a larger Simon effect when the preceding trial was corresponding and an absent effect when the preceding trial was noncorresponding. Differently, in the gaze cueing task, congruence sequence affected only congruent responses with faster responses when the preceding trial was congruent compared to when it was incongruent, resulting in a larger gaze cuing effect when the preceding trial was congruent. Same results were evident with nonpredictive arrow cues. These findings speak against a spatial conflict account.

scholarly journals Affective evaluation of images influences personality judgments through gaze perception

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (11) ◽  
pp. e0241351
Author(s):  
Risako Shirai ◽  
Hirokazu Ogawa
Keyword(s):  
Target Image ◽  
Gaze Perception ◽  
Gaze Cueing ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Affective Evaluation ◽  
Cueing Task ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Right ◽  
Human Faces ◽  
Target Locations

Faces that consistently shifted the gaze to subsequent target locations in a gaze cueing task were chosen as being more trustworthy than faces that always looked away from the target, suggesting that the validity of a gaze cue influenced the viewers’ judgments regarding the trustworthiness of human faces. We investigated whether the gaze cueing effect and judgments regarding the personality conveyed by a face would be affected by the valence of a target. A face image moved its eyes to the left or the right, and an emotional target image (positive, negative, or neutral) appeared to left or right of the face. Participants had to indicate the location of this target by pressing a key. The target image was preceded by a face that shifted its gaze to the target image (valid cue), a face that directed its gaze to the opposite side (invalid cue), or a face that did not move its eyes (no cue). The perceived trustworthiness of the face was evaluated after the gaze-cueing task. Results showed that faces that looked at positive targets were evaluated as more trustworthy than faces that looked at negative targets. However, the valence of the targets did not affect trustworthiness ratings in invalid and no-cue conditions. We suggest that integrated information about the predictability of the gaze cue and the valence of the gaze target modulates impressions about the personality of the face.

scholarly journals Intergroup threat gates social attention in humans

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 20141055 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yujie Chen ◽  
Yufang Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Social Factor ◽  
Social Attention ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Intergroup Threat ◽  
Gaze Cueing ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Facial Stimuli ◽  
Threat Cues ◽  
Onset Asynchrony

Humans shift their attention to follow another person's gaze direction, a phenomenon called gaze cueing. This study examined whether a particular social factor, intergroup threat, modulates gaze cueing. As expected, stronger responses of a particular in-group to a threatening out-group were observed when the in-group, conditioned to perceive threat from one of two out-groups, was presented with facial stimuli from the threatening and non-threatening out-groups. These results suggest that intergroup threat plays an important role in shaping social attention. Furthermore, larger gaze-cueing effects were found for threatening out-group faces than for in-group faces only at the 200 ms but not the 800 ms stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA); the specificity of the gaze-cueing effects at the short SOA suggests that threat cues modulate the involuntary component of gaze cueing.

The accessory Simon effect within and across visual dimensions

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 981-993
Author(s):  
Hagit Magen
Keyword(s):  
Reaction Time ◽  
Simon Effect ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Response Selection ◽  
Simon Task ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Selection Processes ◽  
Action Model ◽  
Feature Information ◽  
Spatial Locations

The Dimension-Action model maintains that response selection in the visual system is modular, such that response selection based on a target’s feature occurs within modules. This study suggests that response selection processes based on a target’s spatial location occur within modules as well, where spatial locations are coded along with the feature information. From this perspective, the typical Simon effect, in which interference occurs between a target’s feature and its spatial location, occurs within modules. This study explored whether the unique characteristic of the spatial Simon, namely, its reduction with increased reaction time is typical of spatial intra-dimension but not of spatial cross-dimension Simon effects, using the accessory Simon task. Experiment 1 demonstrated that intra-dimension Simon effects were reduced with increased reaction time, a reduction that was modulated by the task relevance of the distractor. In contrast, cross-dimension accessory Simon effects were positive and increased with reaction time. Experiment 2 demonstrated that intra-dimension Simon effects were not reduced when space was conveyed symbolically by arrows. Overall, the study suggests that interference in the accessory Simon task is influenced not only by the nature of the irrelevant spatial information but also by the modular locus of the targets and distractors.

EXPRESS: The interplay between gaze cueing and facial trait impressions

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110077
Author(s):  
Giulia Mattavelli ◽  
Daniele Romano ◽  
Andrew Young ◽  
Paola Ricciardelli
Keyword(s):  
Incidental Learning ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Automatic Process ◽  
Gaze Cueing ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Cueing Effect ◽  
Gaze Behaviour ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Trait Impressions ◽  
Gaze Cues

The gaze cueing effect involves the rapid orientation of attention to follow the gaze direction of another person. Previous studies reported reciprocal influences between social variables and the gaze cueing effect, with modulation of gaze cueing by social features of face stimuli and modulation of the observer’s social judgments from the validity of the gaze cues themselves. However, it remains unclear which social dimensions can affect - and be affected by - gaze cues. We used computer-averaged prototype face-like images with high and low levels of perceived trustworthiness and dominance to investigate the impact of these two fundamental social impression dimensions on the gaze cueing effect. Moreover, by varying the proportions of valid and invalid gaze cues across three experiments, we assessed whether gaze cueing influences observers' impressions of dominance and trustworthiness through incidental learning. Bayesian statistical analyses provided clear evidence that the gaze cueing effect was not modulated by facial social trait impressions (Experiments 1-3). On the other hand, there was uncertain evidence of incidental learning of social evaluations following the gaze cueing task. A decrease in perceived trustworthiness for non-cooperative low dominance faces (Experiment 2) and an increase in dominance ratings for faces whose gaze behaviour contradicted expectations (Experiment 3) appeared, but further research is needed to clarify these effects. Thus, this study confirms that attentional shifts triggered by gaze direction involve a robust and relatively automatic process, which could nonetheless influence social impressions depending on perceived traits and the gaze behaviour of faces providing the cues.

Further Evidence That Facial Cues of Dominance Modulate Gaze Cuing in Human Observers

2011 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 193-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedict C. Jones ◽  
Julie C. Main ◽  
Anthony C. Little ◽  
Lisa M. DeBruine
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Facial Cues ◽  
Individual Female ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Physical Cues ◽  
Gaze Cuing ◽  
High Dominance ◽  
Images Of Women

Many studies have demonstrated a gaze-cuing effect in humans, whereby observers are quicker to respond to targets in locations cued by others’ gaze direction than they are to respond to uncued targets. Although researchers have generally suggested that this gaze-cuing effect is unaffected by facial cues other than gaze direction, recent work has challenged this view: Both human and macaque observers demonstrate greater gaze cuing when viewing conspecifics’ faces that possess physical cues associated with high dominance than when viewing those that possess physical cues associated with low dominance. In the current study, we tested for further evidence of dominance-contingent gaze cuing in women. We conducted a gaze-cuing experiment in which different individual female faces were used as cues and calculated the strength of the gaze-cuing effect for each face. Composite (i.e., average) faces manufactured from images of women who elicited particularly large gaze-cuing effects were perceived as more dominant than composites manufactured from images of women who elicited particularly small gaze-cuing effects. This result supports (1) the existence of dominance-contingent gaze-cuing in human observers and (2) the proposal that the gaze-cuing system is sensitive to facial cues other than gaze direction.

The Role of Visual Distractors in the Simon Effect

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 387-397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa Lugli ◽  
Stefania D’Ascenzo ◽  
Roberto Nicoletti ◽  
Carlo Umiltà
Keyword(s):  
Simon Effect ◽  
Simon Task ◽  
Automatic Generation ◽  
Spatial Code ◽  
Attentional Model ◽  
Previous Evidence ◽  
Spatial Stimulus ◽  
Attentional Resources ◽  
Code Changes

Abstract. The Simon effect lies on the automatic generation of a stimulus spatial code, which, however, is not relevant for performing the task. Results typically show faster performance when stimulus and response locations correspond, rather than when they do not. Considering reaction time distributions, two types of Simon effect have been individuated, which are thought to depend on different mechanisms: visuomotor activation versus cognitive translation of spatial codes. The present study aimed to investigate whether the presence of a distractor, which affects the allocation of attentional resources and, thus, the time needed to generate the spatial code, changes the nature of the Simon effect. In four experiments, we manipulated the presence and the characteristics of the distractor. Findings extend previous evidence regarding the distinction between visuomotor activation and cognitive translation of spatial stimulus codes in a Simon task. They are discussed with reference to the attentional model of the Simon effect.

scholarly journals Fear-specific leftward bias in gaze direction judgment

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Zhang ◽  
Qiqi Hu ◽  
Xinwei Lai ◽  
Zhonghua Hu ◽  
Shan Gao
Keyword(s):  
Judgment Task ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Cerebral Lateralization ◽  
Low Level ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Fearful Faces ◽  
Perception Bias ◽  
Behavioural Experiments ◽  
Direction Judgment

AbstractPrevious studies have shown that humans have a left spatial attention bias in cognition and behaviour. However, whether there exists a leftward perception bias of gaze direction has not been investigated. To address this gap, we conducted three behavioural experiments using a forced-choice gaze direction judgment task. The point of subjective equality (PSE) was employed to measure whether there was a leftward perception bias of gaze direction, and if there was, whether this bias was modulated by face emotion. The results of experiment 1 showed that the PSE of fearful faces was significantly positive as compared to zero and this effect was not found in angry, happy, and neutral faces, indicating that participants were more likely to judge the gaze direction of fearful faces as directed to their left-side space, namely a leftward perception bias. With the response keys counterbalanced between participants, experiment 2a replicated the findings in experiment 1. To further investigate whether the gaze direction perception variation was contributed by emotional or low-level features of faces, experiment 2b and 3 used inverted faces and inverted eyes, respectively. The results revealed similar leftward perception biases of gaze direction in all types of faces, indicating that gaze direction perception was biased by emotional information in faces rather than low-level facial features. Overall, our study demonstrates that there a fear-specific leftward perception bias in processing gaze direction. These findings shed new light on the cerebral lateralization in humans.

scholarly journals The Effects of Facial Dominance and Gender Prototypicality on the Gaze-cuing Effect

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. 1398
Author(s):  
Troy Steiner ◽  
Joe Brandenburg ◽  
Reginald Adams, Jr.
Keyword(s):  
The Gaze ◽  
Gaze Cuing ◽  
And Gender

scholarly journals What is unique about the human eye? Comparative image analysis on the external eye morphology of human and nonhuman great apes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fumihiro Kano ◽  
Takeshi Furuichi ◽  
Chie Hashimoto ◽  
Christopher Krupenye ◽  
Jesse G Leinwand ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Image Analysis ◽  
Eye Gaze ◽  
Great Apes ◽  
Gaze Direction ◽  
Human Eye ◽  
The Gaze ◽  
Eye Morphology ◽  
New Findings ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
Signaling Hypothesis

The gaze-signaling hypothesis and the related cooperative-eye hypothesis posit that humans have evolved special external eye morphology, including exposed white sclera (the white of the eye), to enhance the visibility of eye-gaze direction and thereby facilitate conspecific communication through joint-attentional interaction and ostensive communication. However, recent quantitative studies questioned these hypotheses based on new findings that humans are not necessarily unique in certain eye features compared to other great ape species. Therefore, there is currently a heated debate on whether external eye features of humans are distinguished from those of other apes and how such distinguished features contribute to the visibility of eye-gaze direction. This study leveraged updated image analysis techniques to test the uniqueness of human eye features in facial images of great apes. Although many eye features were similar between humans and other species, a key difference was that humans have uniformly white sclera which creates clear visibility of both eye outline and iris; the two essential features contributing to the visibility of eye-gaze direction. We then tested the robustness of the visibility of these features against visual noises such as darkening and distancing and found that both eye features remain detectable in the human eye, while eye outline becomes barely detectable in other species under these visually challenging conditions. Overall, we identified that humans have distinguished external eye morphology among other great apes, which ensures robustness of eye-gaze signal against various visual conditions. Our results support and also critically update the central premises of the gaze-signaling hypothesis.

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