Increased gaze cueing of attention during COVID-19 lockdown

Stretching the limits of automated symbolic orienting

Arrows trigger reflexive shifts of attention and instantiate the prototypical example of automated symbolic orienting. We conducted four experiments to further test the boundary conditions of this phenomenon. Participants discriminated a peripheral target while spatially uninformative arrows, pointing leftwards or rightwards, appeared at fixation. In all experiments, arrow direction could either randomly vary (intermixed condition) or be kept constant within a block of trials (blocked condition). Moreover, in Experiments 3 and 4, a direction word presented at the beginning of the trial informed participants about the target location with 100% certainty. Overall, the results highlighted a significant arrow-driven orienting effect in both the blocked and the intermixed conditions. The present findings support the notion that automated symbolic orienting is resistant to suppression in that it endures even when the context should stress the uninformative nature of the arrows while also creating ideal conditions to boost participants' tendency to ignore them.

Testing the effects of gaze distractors with invariant spatial direction on attention cueing

In four experiments, we tested the boundary conditions of gaze cueing with reference to the resistance to suppression criterion of automaticity. Participants were asked to respond to peripheral targets preceded by a central gaze stimulus. Under one condition, gaze direction was random and uninformative with respect to target location (intermixed condition), as in the typical paradigm. Under another condition, gaze direction was uninformative and, crucially, it was also kept constant throughout the sequence of trials (blocked condition). In so doing, we aimed at maximally reducing the informative value of the gaze stimulus because gaze would not only be task-irrelevant but would also provide no sudden and unpredictable information. Across the four experiments, the results showed a strong gaze-cueing effect. More specifically, a comparable gaze cueing emerged under the blocked and intermixed conditions. These findings are consistent with the idea that gaze cueing is resistant to suppression and are discussed in relation to current views of the automaticity of gaze cueing.

Social excluder's face reduces gaze-triggered attention orienting

Social ostracism, a negative affective experience in interpersonal interactions, is thought to modulate the gaze-cueing effect (GCE). However, it is unclear whether the impact of social exclusion on the GCE is related to the identity of the cueing face. Therefore, the present study employed a two-phase paradigm to address this issue. In the first phase, two groups of participants were instructed to complete a Cyberball game with two virtual avatars to establish a binding relationship between a specific face's identity and the emotions of social exclusion or inclusion. In the second phase, these two virtual avatars (exclusion faces/inclusion faces) and two new faces (control faces) were used as cueing faces in the gaze-cueing task. The results found that, for the exclusion group, the magnitudes of the GCEs for the exclusion and exclusion-control faces were similar in the 200 ms stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) condition, while the exclusion face's GCE was significantly smaller than that of the exclusion-control face in the 700 ms SOA condition. In contrast, for the inclusion group, the GCEs for inclusion and inclusion-control faces in both the 200 ms SOA and 700 ms SOA conditions did not significantly differ. This study reveals that the effect of social exclusion on the GCE is related to the identity of the cueing face, with individuals more reluctant to follow the gaze direction of excluder and shift their attention and provides experimental evidence that the perception of higher social relations can exert a top-down impact on the processing of social spatial cues.

Reduced gaze-cueing effect with neutral and emotional faces in adults with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

This study examined whether gaze shift of neutral and emotional faces triggers reflexive attention orienting in 45 adults with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 45 age-, sex-, and intelligence quotient-matched typically developing (TD) adults. The cues changed from neutral to anger, fearful, or happy expressions under the emotional face condition. Participants were asked to detect a target that appeared to the left or right of the cue stimuli, as rapidly and accurately as possible. The results revealed a gaze-cueing effect, where the reaction time to the target was shorter under the "gaze-at-target" condition than under the "non-gaze-at-target" condition in both groups. Facial expressions did not modulate the gaze-cueing effect in either group. However, the magnitude of the gaze-cueing effect was smaller in the ADHD group than in the TD group. Contrary to our expectations, a larger gaze-cueing effect was observed in individuals with ADHD who exhibited more severe inattention. Our results suggest that adults with ADHD ineffectively orient their attention toward another's gaze. Moreover, difficulty with sustained and selective attention may be associated with a larger influence of gaze direction; this difficulty may play a role in social interaction problems.

Are eyes special? Gaze, but not pointing gestures, elicits a reversed congruency effect in a spatial Stroop task

Gaze stimuli can shape attention in a peculiar way as compared to non-social stimuli. For instance, in a spatial Stroop task, gaze stimuli elicit a reversed congruency effect (i.e., faster responses on incongruent than on congruent trials) as compared to arrows, for which a standard congruency effect emerges. Here, we tested whether the reversed congruency effect observed for gaze can emerge for other social signals such as pointing gestures. Participants discriminated the direction (left or right) indicated by gaze and pointing finger stimuli that appeared leftwards or rightwards with respect to a central fixation spot. Arrows were also employed as control non-social stimuli. A reversed congruency effect emerged for the gaze, whereas a standard congruency effect emerged for both the pointing finger and the arrows. This suggests that the reversed congruency effect is specific to gaze stimuli and does not embrace all social signals conveying spatial information.

Foot cues can elicit covert orienting of attention

Humans tend to orient their attentional resources towards the same location indicated by spatial signals coming from the others, such as pointing fingers, head turns, or eye-gaze. Here, two experiments investigated whether an attentional orienting response can be elicited even by foot cues. Participants were asked to localize a peripheral target while a task-irrelevant picture of a naked human foot, oriented leftward or rightward, was presented on the centre of the screen. The foot appeared in a neutral posture (i.e., standing upright) or an action-oriented posture (i.e., walking/running). In Experiment 1, neutral and action-oriented feet were presented in two distinct blocks, while in Experiment 2 they were presented intermixed. The results showed that the action-oriented foot, but not the neutral one, elicited an orienting response, though this only emerged in Experiment 2. This work suggests that attentional shifts can be induced by action-oriented foot cues, as long as these stimuli are made contextually salient.

Gazing left, gazing right: exploring a spatial bias in social attention

Faces oriented rightwards are sometimes perceived as more dominant than faces oriented leftwards. In this study, we explored whether faces oriented rightwards can also elicit increased attentional orienting. Participants completed a discrimination task in which they were asked to discriminate, by means of a keypress, a peripheral target. At the same time, a task-irrelevant face oriented leftwards or rightwards appeared at the centre of the screen. The results showed that, while for faces oriented rightwards targets appearing on the right were responded to faster as compared to targets appearing on the left, for faces oriented leftwards no differences emerged between left and right targets. Furthermore, we also found a negative correlation between the magnitude of the orienting response elicited by the faces oriented leftwards and the level of conservatism of the participants. Overall, these findings provide evidence for the existence of a spatial bias reflected in social orienting.

Linguistic identity as a modulator of gaze cueing of attention

Eye-gaze stimuli can elicit orienting of attention in an observer, a phenomenon known as gaze cueing of attention. Here, we explored whether gaze cueing can be shaped by the linguistic identity of the cueing face. In two experiments, participants were first familiarized with different faces together with auditory sentences. Half of the sentences were associated with the native language of the participants (Italian) and the other half with an unknown language (Albanian and Basque, in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively). In a second phase, participants performed a gaze-cueing task. In a third recognition phase, the auditory sentences were presented again, and participants were required to decide which face uttered each sentence. Results indicated that participants were more likely to confuse faces from the same language category than from the other language category. Results of the gaze-cueing task revealed a greater gaze-cueing effect for faces associated with the native vs. unknown language. Critically, this difference emerged only in Experiment 1, which may reflect differences in social status between the two language groups. Our findings revealed the impact of language as a social cue on the gaze-cueing effect, suggesting that social attention is sensitive to the language of our interlocutors.

Guilt-inducing interaction with others modulates subsequent attentional orienting via their gaze

Gaze direction can trigger social attentional orientation, characterised by a speeded reaction time in detecting targets appearing in a gazed-at location compared with those appearing in other locations. This is called the 'gaze-cueing effect' (GCE). Here, we investigated whether a feeling of guilt established through prior interaction with a cueing face could modulate the gaze-cueing effect. Participants first completed a guilt-induction task using a modified dot-estimation paradigm to associate the feeling of guilt with a specific face, after which the face that had established the binding relationship was used as the stimulus in a gaze-cueing task. The results showed that guilt-directed faces and control faces induce equal magnitudes of gaze-cueing effect in 200 ms of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), while guilt-directed faces induce a smaller gaze-cueing effect than control faces in 700 ms SOA. These findings provide preliminary evidence that guilt may modulate social attention triggered by eye gaze at a later stage of processing but not in the earlier stages.

Can masked gaze and arrow stimuli elicit overt orienting of attention? A registered report

Viewing an averted gaze can elicit saccades towards the corresponding location. Here, the automaticity of this gaze-following behaviour phenomenon was further tested by exploring whether such an effect can be detected in response to briefly-presented masked averted gazes. Participants completed an oculomotor interference task consisting of making leftward/rightward saccades according to a symbolic instruction cue. Crucially, either a task-irrelevant averted-gaze face or an arrow (i.e., a non-social control stimulus) was also presented in different blocks of trials. Faces and arrows were presented for either 1000 ms, or 8 ms and then backward-masked, to reduce the likelihood of conscious processing. Worse oculomotor performance emerged when the saccade direction did not match (vs match) that suggested by the task-irrelevant gaze/arrow stimuli in the unmasked condition. However, in the masked condition, no oculomotor interference occurred for any task-irrelevant stimulus. Results enrich knowledge about boundary conditions for gaze/arrow-driven orienting using ecological attention measures.

Are there quantitative differences between eye-gaze and arrow cues? A meta-analytic answer to the debate and a call for qualitative differences

Gaze acts from an early age as a cue to orient attention and, thereafter, to infer our social partners' intentions, thoughts, and emotions. Variants of the attentional orienting paradigm have been used to study the orienting capabilities associated to eye gaze. However, to date, it is still unclear whether this methodology truly assesses "social-specific" processes exclusively involved in attention to eye-gaze or the operation of domain-general attentional processes. The present study provides a comprehensive meta-analysis indicating that eye-gaze and non-social directional stimuli, such as arrows, produce equivalent attentional effects. This result casts doubt on the potential utility of the classic cueing task in revealing social-specific processes. On the other hand, we review behavioral evidence suggesting that eye-gaze stimuli may induce higher-order social processes when more specific experimental procedures that analyze qualitative rather than quantitative differences are used. These findings point to an integrated view in which domain-general and social specific processes both contribute to the attentional mechanisms induced by eye-gaze direction. Finally, some proposals about the social components specifically triggered by eye-gaze stimuli are discussed.

Tuning social modulations of gaze cueing via contextual factors

Gaze cueing reflects the tendency to shift attention toward a location cued by the averted gaze of others. This effect does not fulfill criteria for strong automaticity because its magnitude is sensitive to the manipulation of different social features. Recent theoretical perspectives suggest that social modulations of gaze cueing could further critically depend on contextual factors. In this study, we tested this idea, relying on previous evidence showing that Chinese participants are more sensitive to gazes on White than on Asian faces, likely as a consequence of differences in perceived social status. We replicated this effect when we made group membership salient by presenting faces belonging to the different ethnicities in the same block. In contrast, when faces belonging to different ethnicities were presented in separate blocks, a similar gaze-cueing effect was noted, likely because no social comparison processes were activated. These findings are consistent with the idea that social modulations are not rigid but are tuned by contextual factors.

Face mask use as a categorical dimension in social perception

Prevention measures aimed at combating COVID-19 pandemic strongly impact several aspects of social life. In particular, interpersonal perception is affected as a function of whether the persons perceived wear or not face masks. In two experimental studies, we here explored whether people rely on the presence vs. absence of face masks when encoding information in memory about other individuals. In a memory confusion paradigm, participants were initially presented with individuals either wearing a face mask or not, each conveying a series of sentences. Next, participants were probed about the identity of the speaker of each sentence. Results showed that it was more likely to erroneously attribute a sentence to a speaker who also was wearing a face mask (or not) as the original speaker, demonstrating that the cue about wearing or not a face mask was spontaneously used to encode information. Study 2 ruled out an alternative explanation based on perceptual processes, suggesting that face masks represent meaningful social objects. Overall, it emerged that participants spontaneously categorize others as a function of whether they wear a mask or not. Findings also confirmed previous research evidence about the more positive evaluation of mask wearers as compared to non-wearers, and the overall detrimental impact that face masks may have on the correct identification of social targets.

The Emotional Lockdown: How Social Distancing and Mask Wearing Influence Mood and Emotion Recognition in Adolescents and Adults

During the COVID-19 pandemic, government-mandated protection measures such as contact restrictions and mask wearing significantly affected social interactions. In the current preregistered studies we hypothesized that such measures could influence self-reported mood in adults and in adolescents between 12 and 13 years of age, who are in a critical phase of social development. We found that mood was positively related to face-to-face but not to virtual interactions in adults and that virtual interactions were associated with negative mood in adolescents. This suggests that contact restrictions leading to a decrease in face-to-face compared to virtual interactions may be related to negative mood. To understand if prolonged exposure to people wearing masks during the pandemic might be related to increased sensitivity for subtle visual cues to others’ emotions from the eye region of the face, we also presented both age groups with the same standardized emotion recognition test. We found slightly better performance in emotion recognition from the eyes in our student sample tested during the pandemic relative to a comparable sample tested prior to the pandemic although these differences were restricted to female participants. Adolescents were also better at classifying emotions from the eyes in the current study than in a pre-pandemic sample, with no gender effects occurring in this age group. In conclusion, while social distancing might have detrimental effects on self-reported mood, the ability to recognize others’ emotions from subtle visual cues around the eye region remained comparable or might have even improved during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Evolution of Psychological and Behavioral Consequences of Self-Isolation During Lockdown: A Longitudinal Study Across United Kingdom and Italy

Introduction

Several countries imposed nationwide or partial lockdowns to limit the spread of COVID-19 and avoid overwhelming hospitals and intensive care units. Lockdown may involve restriction of movement, stay-at-home orders and self-isolation, which may have dramatic consequences on mental health. Recent studies demonstrated that the negative impact of lockdown restrictions depends on a wide range of psychological and socio-demographic factors.

Aims

This longitudinal study aimed to understand how internal factors such as personality and mindfulness traits, and external factors, such as daily habits and house features, affect anxiety, depression and general wellbeing indicators, as well as cognitive functions, during the course of a lockdown.

Methods

To address these questions, 96 participants in Italy and the United Kingdom filled out a survey, once a week for 4 weeks, during the first-wave lockdowns. The survey included questions related to their habits and features of the house, as well as validated questionnaires to measure personality traits, mindful attitude and post-traumatic symptoms. Indicators of wellbeing were the affective state, anxiety, stress and psychopathological indices. We also measured the emotional impact of the pandemic on cognitive ability by using two online behavioral tasks [emotional Stroop task (EST) and visual search].

Results

We found that internal factors influenced participants' wellbeing during the first week of the study, while external factors affected participants in the last weeks. In the first week, internal variables such as openness, conscientiousness and being non-judgmental toward one's own thoughts and emotions were positively associated with wellbeing; instead, neuroticism and the tendency to observe and describe one's own thoughts and emotions had detrimental effects on wellbeing. Toward the end of the study, external variables such as watching television and movies, browsing the internet, walking the dog, and having a balcony showed a protective value, while social networking and engaging in video calls predicted lower values of wellbeing. We did not find any effects of wellbeing on cognitive functioning.

Conclusion

Recognizing specific traits and habits affecting individuals' wellbeing (in both short and long terms) during social isolation is crucial to identify people at risk of developing psychological distress and help refine current guidelines to alleviate the psychological consequences of prolonged lockdowns.