1
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Liu X, Ma J, Zhao G, Sun HJ. The effect of gaze information associated with the search items on contextual cueing effect. Atten Percept Psychophys 2024; 86:84-94. [PMID: 38030821 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-023-02817-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/06/2023] [Indexed: 12/01/2023]
Abstract
Previous research on the mechanisms of contextual cueing effect has been inconsistent, with some researchers showing that the contextual benefit was derived from the attentional guidance whereas others argued that the former theory was not the source of contextual cueing effect. We brought the "stare-in-the-crowd" effect that used pictures of gaze with different orientations as stimuli into a traditional contextual cueing effect paradigm to investigate whether attentional guidance plays a part in this effect. We embedded the letters used in a traditional contextual cueing effect paradigm into the gaze pictures with direct and averted orientation. In Experiment 1, we found that there was a weak interaction between the contextual cueing effect and the "stare-in-the-crowd" effect. In Experiments 2 and 3, we found that the contextual cueing effect was influenced differently when the direct gaze was combined with the target or distractors. These results suggested that attentional guidance played an important role in the generation of a contextual cueing effect and the direct gaze had a special impact on visual search. To summarize the three findings, the direct gaze on target location facilitates the contextual cueing effect, and such an effect is even greater when we compared condition with the direct gaze on target location with condition with the direct gaze on distractor location (Experiments 2 and 3). Such an effect of gaze on a contextual cueing effect is manifested even when the effect of gaze ("stare-in-the-crowd" effect) was absent in the New configurations (search trials without learning).
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Affiliation(s)
- Xingze Liu
- Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China
| | - Jie Ma
- Department of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Guang Zhao
- Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, China.
| | - Hong-Jin Sun
- Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
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2
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Chen X, Xu B, Chen Y, Zeng X, Zhang Y, Fu S. Saliency affects attentional capture and suppression of abrupt-onset and color singleton distractors: Evidence from event-related potential studies. Psychophysiology 2023:e14290. [PMID: 36946491 DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14290] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2021] [Revised: 09/06/2022] [Accepted: 09/26/2022] [Indexed: 03/23/2023]
Abstract
Attention is the process of selecting relevant information and suppressing irrelevant information. However, it is still controversial whether attentional capture by salient but task-irrelevant stimuli operates in a bottom-up fashion (stimulus-driven theory) or a top-down fashion (goal-driven theory) or if even salient distractors can be suppressed before capturing attention (signal suppression theory). In the present study, we investigated how saliency affects attentional capture (indexed by N2-posterior-contralateral [N2pc]) and suppression (indexed by distractor positivity [PD ]) of abrupt-onset and color singleton distractors in a visual search task. Experiment 1 showed that an abrupt-onset distractor elicited both N2pc and PD , while a color singleton distractor elicited only PD . Moreover, the abrupt-onset distractor elicited a larger N2pc and a larger PD relative to the color singleton distractor. In addition, both distractors elicited an early positive component, the positivity posterior contralateral (Ppc), which was also larger for abrupt onsets than for color singletons. Experiment 2 further demonstrated that when both the abrupt onset and color singleton were designed as targets, and thus required no attentional suppression, Ppc was elicited, but PD was not. This corroborated the finding in Experiment 1 that the later PD , not the early Ppc, reflected attentional suppression. Therefore, a more salient distractor demonstrates stronger early perceptual processing, can capture attention better and needs more attentional resources to be suppressed later. Based on these results, a three-stage hypothesis is proposed, in which the saliency of a distractor modulates processing at early perception, attentional capture, and suppression stages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaowen Chen
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Education, Guangzhou University, 510006, Guangzhou, China
| | - Bing Xu
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Education, Guangzhou University, 510006, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yanzhang Chen
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Education, Guangzhou University, 510006, Guangzhou, China
| | - Xianqing Zeng
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Education, Guangzhou University, 510006, Guangzhou, China
| | - Yue Zhang
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Education, Guangzhou University, 510006, Guangzhou, China
| | - Shimin Fu
- Department of Psychology and Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, School of Education, Guangzhou University, 510006, Guangzhou, China
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3
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Breil C, Huestegge L, Böckler A. From eye to arrow: Attention capture by direct gaze requires more than just the eyes. Atten Percept Psychophys 2022; 84:64-75. [PMID: 34729707 PMCID: PMC8794969 DOI: 10.3758/s13414-021-02382-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Human attention is strongly attracted by direct gaze and sudden onset motion. The sudden direct-gaze effect refers to the processing advantage for targets appearing on peripheral faces that suddenly establish eye contact. Here, we investigate the necessity of social information for attention capture by (sudden onset) ostensive cues. Six experiments involving 204 participants applied (1) naturalistic faces, (2) arrows, (3) schematic eyes, (4) naturalistic eyes, or schematic facial configurations (5) without or (6) with head turn to an attention-capture paradigm. Trials started with two stimuli oriented towards the observer and two stimuli pointing into the periphery. Simultaneous to target presentation, one direct stimulus changed to averted and one averted stimulus changed to direct, yielding a 2 × 2 factorial design with direction and motion cues being absent or present. We replicated the (sudden) direct-gaze effect for photographic faces, but found no corresponding effects in Experiments 2-6. Hence, a holistic and socially meaningful facial context seems vital for attention capture by direct gaze. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE: The present study highlights the significance of context information for social attention. Our findings demonstrate that the direct-gaze effect, that is, the prioritization of direct gaze over averted gaze, critically relies on the presentation of a meaningful holistic and naturalistic facial context. This pattern of results is evidence in favor of early effects of surrounding social information on attention capture by direct gaze.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christina Breil
- Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany.
- Department of Psychology III, University of Würzburg, Röntgenring 11, 97070, Würzburg, Germany.
| | - Lynn Huestegge
- Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| | - Anne Böckler
- Leibniz University Hannover, Hannover, Germany
- Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
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4
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Burra N, Kerzel D. Meeting another's gaze shortens subjective time by capturing attention. Cognition 2021; 212:104734. [PMID: 33887652 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104734] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/11/2020] [Revised: 04/09/2021] [Accepted: 04/10/2021] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
Gaze directed at the observer (direct gaze) is an important and highly salient social signal with multiple effects on cognitive processes and behavior. It is disputed whether the effect of direct gaze is caused by attentional capture or increased arousal. Time estimation may provide an answer because attentional capture predicts an underestimation of time whereas arousal predicts an overestimation. In a temporal bisection task, observers were required to classify the duration of a stimulus as short or long. Stimulus duration was selected randomly between 988 and 1479 ms. When gaze was directed at the observer, participants underestimated stimulus duration, suggesting that effects of direct gaze are caused by attentional capture, not increased arousal. Critically, this effect was limited to dynamic stimuli where gaze appeared to move toward the participant. The underestimation was present with stimuli showing a full face, but also with stimuli showing only the eye region, inverted faces and high-contrast eye-like stimuli. However, it was absent with static pictures of full faces and dynamic nonfigurative stimuli. Because the effect of direct gaze depended on motion, which is common in naturalistic scenes, more consideration needs to be given to the ecological validity of stimuli in the study of social attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas Burra
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, Université de Genève, Switzerland.
| | - Dirk Kerzel
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, Université de Genève, Switzerland
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5
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Kiilavuori H, Sariola V, Peltola MJ, Hietanen JK. Making eye contact with a robot: Psychophysiological responses to eye contact with a human and with a humanoid robot. Biol Psychol 2020; 158:107989. [PMID: 33217486 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2020.107989] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2020] [Revised: 11/09/2020] [Accepted: 11/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Previous research has shown that eye contact, in human-human interaction, elicits increased affective and attention related psychophysiological responses. In the present study, we investigated whether eye contact with a humanoid robot would elicit these responses. Participants were facing a humanoid robot (NAO) or a human partner, both physically present and looking at or away from the participant. The results showed that both in human-robot and human-human condition, eye contact versus averted gaze elicited greater skin conductance responses indexing autonomic arousal, greater facial zygomatic muscle responses (and smaller corrugator responses) associated with positive affect, and greater heart deceleration responses indexing attention allocation. With regard to the skin conductance and zygomatic responses, the human model's gaze direction had a greater effect on the responses as compared to the robot's gaze direction. In conclusion, eye contact elicits automatic affective and attentional reactions both when shared with a humanoid robot and with another human.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helena Kiilavuori
- Human Information Processing Laboratory, Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, FI -33014, Tampere University, Finland
| | - Veikko Sariola
- Faculty of Medicine and Health Technology, Korkeakoulunkatu 3, FI - 33720, Tampere University, Finland
| | - Mikko J Peltola
- Human Information Processing Laboratory, Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, FI -33014, Tampere University, Finland
| | - Jari K Hietanen
- Human Information Processing Laboratory, Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, FI -33014, Tampere University, Finland.
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6
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Colombatto C, van Buren B, Scholl BJ. Gazing Without Eyes: A "Stare-in-the-Crowd" Effect Induced by Simple Geometric Shapes. Perception 2020; 49:782-792. [PMID: 32673187 DOI: 10.1177/0301006620934320] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Of the many effects that eye contact has, perhaps the most powerful is the stare-in-the-crowd effect, wherein faces are detected more readily when they look directly toward you. This is commonly attributed to others' eyes being especially salient visual stimuli, but here we ask whether stares-in-the-crowd might arise instead from a deeper property that the eyes (but not only the eyes) signify: the direction of others' attention and intentions. In fact, even simple geometric shapes can be seen as intentional, as when numerous randomly scattered cones are all consistently pointing at you. Accordingly, we show here that cones directed at the observer are detected faster (in fields of averted cones) than are cones averted away from the observer (in fields of directed cones). These results suggest that perceived intentionality itself captures attention-and that even in the absence of eyes, others' directed attention stands out in a crowd.
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Affiliation(s)
- Clara Colombatto
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
| | - Benjamin van Buren
- Department of Psychology, The New School for Social Research, New York, United States
| | - Brian J Scholl
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
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7
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Lanthier SN, Jarick M, Zhu MJH, Byun CSJ, Kingstone A. Socially Communicative Eye Contact and Gender Affect Memory. Front Psychol 2019; 10:1128. [PMID: 31231266 PMCID: PMC6558403 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01128] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2018] [Accepted: 04/29/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Because of their value as a socially communicative cue, researchers have strived to understand how the gaze of other people influences a variety of cognitive processes. Recent work in social attention suggests that the use of images of people in laboratory studies, as a substitute for real people, may not effectively test socially communicative aspects of eye gaze. As attention affects many other cognitive processes, it is likely that social attention between real individuals could also affect other cognitive processes, such as memory. However, from previous work alone, it is unclear whether, and if so how, socially communicative eye gaze affects memory. The present studies test the assumption that socially communicative aspects of eye gaze may impact memory by manipulating the eye gaze of a live speaker in the context of a traditional recognition paradigm used frequently in the laboratory. A female (Experiment 1) or male (Experiment 2) investigator read words aloud and varied whether eye contact was, or was not, made with a participant. With both female and male investigators, eye contact improved word recognition only for female participants and hindered word recognition in male participants. When a female investigator prolonged their eye contact (Experiment 3) to provide a longer opportunity to both observe and process the investigator’s eye gaze, the results replicated the findings from Experiments 1 and 2. The findings from Experiments 1–3 suggest that females interpret and use the investigator’s eye gaze differently than males. When key aspects from the previous experiments were replicated in a noncommunicative situation (i.e., when a video of a speaker is used instead of a live speaker; Experiment 4), the memory effects observed previously in response to eye gaze were eliminated. Together, these studies suggest that it is the socially communicative aspects of eye gaze from a real person that influence memory. The findings reveal the importance of using social cues that are communicative in nature (e.g., real people) when studying the relationship between social attention and memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sophie N Lanthier
- Brain, Attention, and Reality Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Michelle Jarick
- Atypical Perception Laboratory, Department of Psychology, MacEwan University, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Mona J H Zhu
- Cognition and Natural Behaviour Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
| | - Crystal S J Byun
- Brain, Attention, and Reality Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Alan Kingstone
- Brain, Attention, and Reality Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
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8
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Burra N, Massait S, Vrtička P. Differential impact of trait, social, and attachment anxiety on the stare-in-the-crowd effect. Sci Rep 2019; 9:1797. [PMID: 30742015 PMCID: PMC6370884 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-39342-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2018] [Accepted: 01/22/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Eye gaze conveys crucial information for social interactions, with straight versus averted gaze triggering distinct emotional and cognitive processes. The "stare-in-the-crowd" effect exemplifies such differential visual processing of gaze direction, in more recent reports also in interaction with head orientation. Besides aiming at replicating the "stare-in-the-crowd" effect by means of an eye gaze by head orientation interaction, the present study intended to for the first time testing its susceptibility to inter-individual differences in trait, social, and attachment anxiety. Our findings reveal a significant relation between the "stare-in-the-crowd" effect and social and attachment, but not trait anxiety, and therefore provide preliminary cues for personality influences on visual processing of eye gaze and head orientation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicolas Burra
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland.
| | - Solene Massait
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l'Education, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Pascal Vrtička
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Research Group Social Stress and Family Health, Leipzig, Germany
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9
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Abstract
In recent years, many studies have shown that perceiving other individuals' direct gaze has robust effects on various attentional and cognitive processes. However, considerably less attention has been devoted to investigating the affective effects triggered by eye contact. This article reviews research concerning the effects of others' gaze direction on observers' affective responses. The review focuses on studies in which affective reactions have been investigated in well-controlled laboratory experiments, and in which contextual factors possibly influencing perceivers' affects have been controlled. Two important themes emerged from this review. First, explicit affective evaluations of seeing another's direct versus averted gaze have resulted in rather inconsistent findings; some studies report more positive subjective feelings to direct compared to averted gaze, whereas others report the opposite pattern. These contradictory findings may be related, for example, to differences between studies in terms of the capability of direct-gaze stimuli to elicit feelings of self-involvement. Second, studies relying on various implicit measures have reported more consistent results; they indicate that direct gaze increases affective arousal, and more importantly, that eye contact automatically evokes a positively valenced affective reaction. Based on the review, possible psychological mechanisms for the positive affective reactions elicited by eye contact are described.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jari K. Hietanen
- Human Information Processing Laboratory, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland
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10
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Early and late cortical responses to directly gazing faces are task dependent. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2018; 18:796-809. [PMID: 29736681 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-018-0605-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Gender categorisation of human faces is facilitated when gaze is directed toward the observer (i.e., a direct gaze), compared with situations where gaze is averted or the eyes are closed (Macrae, Hood, Milne, Rowe, & Mason, Psychological Science, 13(5), 460-464, 2002). However, the temporal dynamics underlying this phenomenon remain to some extent unknown. Here, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to assess the neural correlates of this effect, focusing on the event-related potential (ERP) components known to be sensitive to gaze perception (i.e., P1, N170, and P3b). We first replicated the seminal findings of Macrae et al. (2002, Experiment 1) regarding facilitated gender discrimination, and subsequently measured the underlying neural responses. Our data revealed an early preferential processing of direct gaze as compared with averted gaze and closed eyes at the P1, which reverberated at the P3b (Experiment 2). Critically, using the same material, we failed to reproduce these effects when gender categorisation was not required (Experiment 3). Taken together, our data confirm that direct gaze enhances the early P1, as well as later cortical responses to face processing, although the effect appears to be task dependent.
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11
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Lyyra P, Myllyneva A, Hietanen JK. Mentalizing eye contact with a face on a video: Gaze direction does not influence autonomic arousal. Scand J Psychol 2018; 59:360-367. [DOI: 10.1111/sjop.12452] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2017] [Accepted: 03/08/2018] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Pessi Lyyra
- Human Information Processing Laboratory; School of Social Sciences and Humanities/Psychology; University of Tampere; Tampere Finland
- Department of Psychology; University of Jyväskylä; Jyväskylä Finland
| | - Aki Myllyneva
- Human Information Processing Laboratory; School of Social Sciences and Humanities/Psychology; University of Tampere; Tampere Finland
| | - Jari K. Hietanen
- Human Information Processing Laboratory; School of Social Sciences and Humanities/Psychology; University of Tampere; Tampere Finland
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12
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Mares I, Smith ML, Johnson MH, Senju A. Revealing the neural time-course of direct gaze processing via spatial frequency manipulation of faces. Biol Psychol 2018; 135:76-83. [PMID: 29510183 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2018.03.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/08/2017] [Revised: 12/21/2017] [Accepted: 03/01/2018] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Abstract
Direct gaze is a powerful social cue signalling the attention of another person toward oneself. Here we investigated the relevance of low spatial frequency (LSF) and high spatial frequency (HSF) in facial cues for direct gaze processing. We identified two distinct peaks in the ERP response, the N170 and N240 components. These two components were related to different stimulus conditions and influenced by different spatial frequencies. In particular, larger N170 and N240 amplitudes were observed for direct gaze than for averted gaze, but only in the N240 component was this effect modulated by spatial frequency, where it was reliant in LSF information. By contrast, larger N170 and N240 components were observed for faces than for non-facial stimuli, but this effect was only modulated by spatial frequency in the N170 component, where it relied on HSF information. The present study highlights the existence of two functionally distinct components related to direct gaze processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Inês Mares
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, Henry Wellcome Building, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, United Kingdom; Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, United Kingdom.
| | - Marie L Smith
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, Henry Wellcome Building, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, United Kingdom; Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, United Kingdom.
| | - Mark H Johnson
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, Henry Wellcome Building, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, United Kingdom.
| | - Atsushi Senju
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, Henry Wellcome Building, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HX, United Kingdom.
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13
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Lyyra P, Astikainen P, Hietanen JK. Look at them and they will notice you: Distractor-independent attentional capture by direct gaze in change blindness. VISUAL COGNITION 2017. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2017.1370052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Pessi Lyyra
- Human Information Processing Laboratory, Faculty of Social Sciences/Psychology, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland
- Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Piia Astikainen
- Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
| | - Jari K. Hietanen
- Human Information Processing Laboratory, Faculty of Social Sciences/Psychology, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland
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14
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Helminen TM, Leppänen JM, Eriksson K, Luoma A, Hietanen JK, Kylliäinen A. Atypical physiological orienting to direct gaze in low-functioning children with autism spectrum disorder. Autism Res 2017; 10:810-820. [PMID: 28244277 DOI: 10.1002/aur.1738] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2016] [Revised: 11/01/2016] [Accepted: 12/03/2016] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Reduced use of eye contact is a prominent feature in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It has been proposed that direct gaze does not capture the attention of individuals with ASD. Experimental evidence is, however, mainly restricted to relatively high-functioning school-aged children or adults with ASD. This study investigated whether 2-5-year-old low-functioning children with severe ASD differ from control children in orienting to gaze stimuli, as measured with the heart rate deceleration response. Responses were measured to computerized presentations of dynamic shifts of gaze direction either toward (direct) or away (averted) from the observing child. The results showed a significant group by gaze direction interaction effect on heart rate responses (permuted P = .004), reflecting a stronger orienting response to direct versus averted gaze in typically developing (N = 17) and developmentally delayed (N = 16) children but not in children with ASD (N = 12). The lack of enhanced orienting response to direct gaze in the ASD group was not caused by a lack of looking at the eye region, as confirmed by eye tracking. The results suggest that direct gaze is not a socially salient, attention-grabbing signal for low-functioning children with ASD. Autism Res 2017, 10: 810-820. © 2017 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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Affiliation(s)
- Terhi M Helminen
- Faculty of Social Sciences/Psychology, 33014 University of Tampere, Finland
| | | | - Kai Eriksson
- Department of Pediatric Neurology and Tampere Center for Child Health Research, School of Medicine, 33014 University of Tampere, and Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland
| | - Arto Luoma
- School of Management, 33014 University of Tampere, Finland
| | - Jari K Hietanen
- Faculty of Social Sciences/Psychology, 33014 University of Tampere, Finland
| | - Anneli Kylliäinen
- Faculty of Social Sciences/Psychology, 33014 University of Tampere, Finland
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15
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Framorando D, George N, Kerzel D, Burra N. Straight gaze facilitates face processing but does not cause involuntary attentional capture. VISUAL COGNITION 2017. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2017.1285840] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- D. Framorando
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l’Education, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - N. George
- Inserm, Paris, France
- CNRS, Paris, France
- Sorbonne Universités, Paris, France
- Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epinière (ICM), Social and Affective Neuroscience Lab and MEG-EEG Centre - CENIR, Paris, France
| | - D. Kerzel
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l’Education, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - N. Burra
- Faculté de Psychologie et des Sciences de l’Education, Université de Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
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16
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Palanica A, Itier RJ. Asymmetry in Gaze Direction Discrimination Between the Upper and Lower Visual Fields. Perception 2017; 46:941-955. [PMID: 28056652 DOI: 10.1177/0301006616686989] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Previous research has shown that gaze direction can only be accurately discriminated within parafoveal limits (∼5° eccentricity) along the horizontal visual field. Beyond this eccentricity, head orientation seems to influence gaze discrimination more than iris cues. The present study examined gaze discrimination performance in the upper visual field (UVF) and lower visual field (LVF), and whether head orientation affects gaze judgments beyond parafoveal vision. Direct and averted gaze faces, in frontal and deviated head orientations, were presented for 150 ms along the vertical meridian while participants maintained central fixation during gaze discrimination judgments. Gaze discrimination was above chance level at all but one eccentricity for the two gaze-head congruent conditions. In contrast, for the incongruent conditions, gaze was discriminated above chance only from -1.5° to +3°, with an asymmetry between the UVF and LVF. Beyond foveal vision, response rates were biased toward head orientation rather than iris eccentricity, occurring in the LVF for both head orientations, and in the UVF for frontal head views. These findings suggest that covert processing of gaze direction involves the integration of eyes and head cues, with congruency of these two social cues driving response differences between the LVF and the UVF.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam Palanica
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
| | - Roxane J Itier
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
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Conty L, George N, Hietanen JK. Watching Eyes effects: When others meet the self. Conscious Cogn 2016; 45:184-197. [DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2016.08.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 92] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2015] [Revised: 06/06/2016] [Accepted: 08/22/2016] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
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Helminen TM, Pasanen TP, Hietanen JK. Learning under your gaze: the mediating role of affective arousal between perceived direct gaze and memory performance. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2015; 80:159-71. [DOI: 10.1007/s00426-015-0649-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2014] [Accepted: 01/24/2015] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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Palanica A, Itier RJ. Effects of Peripheral Eccentricity and Head Orientation on Gaze Discrimination. VISUAL COGNITION 2014; 22:1216-1232. [PMID: 28344501 PMCID: PMC5362270 DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2014.990545] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
Abstract
Visual search tasks support a special role for direct gaze in human cognition, while classic gaze judgment 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 judgments, 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.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam Palanica
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
| | - Roxane J Itier
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
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Akechi H, Senju A, Uibo H, Kikuchi Y, Hasegawa T, Hietanen JK. Attention to eye contact in the West and East: autonomic responses and evaluative ratings. PLoS One 2013; 8:e59312. [PMID: 23516627 PMCID: PMC3596353 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059312] [Citation(s) in RCA: 93] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2012] [Accepted: 02/15/2013] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Eye contact has a fundamental role in human social interaction. The special appearance of the human eye (i.e., white sclera contrasted with a coloured iris) implies the importance of detecting another person's face through eye contact. Empirical studies have demonstrated that faces making eye contact are detected quickly and processed preferentially (i.e., the eye contact effect). Such sensitivity to eye contact seems to be innate and universal among humans; however, several studies suggest that cultural norms affect eye contact behaviours. For example, Japanese individuals exhibit less eye contact than do individuals from Western European or North American cultures. However, how culture modulates eye contact behaviour is unclear. The present study investigated cultural differences in autonomic correlates of attentional orienting (i.e., heart rate) and looking time. Additionally, we examined evaluative ratings of eye contact with another real person, displaying an emotionally neutral expression, between participants from Western European (Finnish) and East Asian (Japanese) cultures. Our results showed that eye contact elicited stronger heart rate deceleration responses (i.e., attentional orienting), shorter looking times, and higher ratings of subjective feelings of arousal as compared to averted gaze in both cultures. Instead, cultural differences in the eye contact effect were observed in various evaluative responses regarding the stimulus faces (e.g., facial emotion, approachability etc.). The rating results suggest that individuals from an East Asian culture perceive another's face as being angrier, unapproachable, and unpleasant when making eye contact as compared to individuals from a Western European culture. The rating results also revealed that gaze direction (direct vs. averted) could influence perceptions about another person's facial affect and disposition. These results suggest that cultural differences in eye contact behaviour emerge from differential display rules and cultural norms, as opposed to culture affecting eye contact behaviour directly at the physiological level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hironori Akechi
- Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- * E-mail: (HA); (JKH)
| | - Atsushi Senju
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Helen Uibo
- Institute of Psychology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
| | - Yukiko Kikuchi
- Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Toshikazu Hasegawa
- Department of Cognitive and Behavioral Science, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Jari K. Hietanen
- Human Information Processing Laboratory, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland
- * E-mail: (HA); (JKH)
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Abstract
The human visual system is efficient at detecting an approaching object. In detecting approaching human beings, bodily movement serves as a cue for the visual system to compute moving direction. On the basis of this knowledge, we hypothesized that bodily movement implying approach is detected faster than receding bodily movement even when only bodily movement is available as a clue to discerning motion direction. To examine this hypothesis, we conducted a visual search experiment in which participants searched for a point-light figure with approaching or receding walking movement. Results showed that an approaching point-light figure was detected faster than a receding one. This search asymmetry was eliminated when the figures were presented upside-down. These findings indicate the potency of bodily movement that implies approach in effectively capturing visuospatial attention.
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Doi H, Shinohara K. Task-irrelevant direct gaze facilitates visual search for deviant facial expression. VISUAL COGNITION 2013. [DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2013.779350] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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Doi H, Shinohara K. Electrophysiological responses in mothers to their own and unfamiliar child's gaze information. Brain Cogn 2012; 80:266-76. [PMID: 22940751 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2012.07.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/18/2011] [Revised: 07/15/2012] [Accepted: 07/18/2012] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
An attachment bond between a mother and her child is one of the most intimate human relationships. It is important for a mother to be sensitive to her child's gaze direction because exchanging gaze information plays a vital role in their relationship. Furthermore, recent studies have revealed differential neural activation patterns in mothers when presented the faces of their own children or the unfamiliar child of other people. Based on these findings, in the present study, we investigated whether mothers show differential neural responses to gaze information of their own child compared to that of an unfamiliar child. To this end, event-related-potentials elicited by the faces of one's own or an unfamiliar child with straight or averted gaze directions were measured using an oddball-paradigm. The results showed that peak amplitudes of the N170 component were enlarged by viewing the straight gazes compared to the averted gazes of one's own child, but not of an unfamiliar child. When the gaze was directed straight, the P3 amplitude elicited by one's own child's face is smaller than that elicited by an unfamiliar child's face. P3s elicited in viewing one's own child's face with averted gaze and in viewing an unfamiliar child's face with straight gaze were positively correlated with state-anxiety. These results bolster the hypothesis that processing the gaze information of one's own child elicits differential neural activation compared to the gaze information of an other person's unfamiliar child at both perceptual and evaluative stages of face processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hirokazu Doi
- Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki University, 1-12-4 Sakamoto-cho, Nagasaki City, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan
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Doi H, Shinohara K. Event-related potentials elicited in mothers by their own and unfamiliar infants’ faces with crying and smiling expression. Neuropsychologia 2012; 50:1297-307. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.02.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 38] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/28/2011] [Revised: 02/16/2012] [Accepted: 02/21/2012] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
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Abstract
Eye-tracking was used to investigate whether gaze direction would influence the visual scanning of faces, when presented in the context of a full character, in different social settings, and with different task demands. Participants viewed individual computer agents against either a blank background or a bar scene setting, during both a free-viewing task and an attractiveness rating task for each character. Faces with a direct gaze were viewed longer than faces with an averted gaze regardless of body context, social settings, and task demands. Additionally, participants evaluated characters with a direct gaze as more attractive than characters with an averted gaze. These results, obtained with pictures of computer agents rather than real people, suggest that direct gaze is a powerful attention grabbing stimulus that is robust to background context or task demands.
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Abstract
The purpose of the current study was to use eye tracking to better understand the "stare-in-the-crowd effect"-the notion that direct gaze is more easily detected than averted gaze in a crowd of opposite-gaze distractors. Stimuli were displays of four full characters aligned across the monitor (one target and three distractors). Participants completed a visual search task in which they were asked to detect the location of either a direct gaze or an averted gaze target. Reaction time (RT) results indicated faster responses to direct than averted gaze only for characters situated in the far peripheral visual fields. Eye movements confirmed a serial search strategy (definitely ruling out any pop-out effects) and revealed different exploration patterns between hemifields. The latency before the first fixation on target strongly correlated with response RTs. In the LVF, that latency was also faster for direct than averted gaze targets, suggesting that the response asymmetry in favor of direct gaze stemmed from faster direct gaze target detection. In the RVF, however, the response bias to direct gaze seemed not due to a faster visual detection but rather to a different cognitive mechanism. Direct gaze targets were also responded to even faster when their position was congruent with the direction of gaze of distractors. These findings suggest that the detection asymmetry for direct gaze is highly dependent on target position and influenced by social contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adam Palanica
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
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