The Role of Cue Type in the Subliminal Gaze-cueing Effect

Most experimental protocols examining joint attention with the gaze cueing paradigm are “observational” and “offline”, thereby not involving social interaction. We examined whether within a naturalistic online interaction, real-time eye contact influences the gaze cueing effect (GCE). We embedded gaze cueing in an interactive protocol with the iCub humanoid robot. This has the advantage of ecological validity combined with excellent experimental control. Critically, before averting the gaze, iCub either established eye contact or not, a manipulation enabled by an algorithm detecting position of the human eyes. For non-predictive gaze cueing procedure (Experiment 1), only the eye contact condition elicited GCE, while for counter-predictive procedure (Experiment 2), only the condition with no eye contact induced GCE. These results reveal an interactive effect of strategic (gaze validity) and social (eye contact) top-down components on the reflexive orienting of attention induced by gaze cues. More generally, we propose that naturalistic protocols with an embodied presence of an agent can cast a new light on mechanisms of social cognition.

Download Full-text

Moving to the direction of the eyes: finding the masked gaze cueing effect

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/conf.fnhum.2012.208.00014 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

Author(s):

Finkbeiner Matthew

Keyword(s):

Gaze Cueing ◽

Cueing Effect

Download Full-text

Not afraid to trust you: Trustworthiness moderates gaze cueing but not in highly anxious participants

10.31219/osf.io/hde55 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Felix Suessenbach ◽

Felix D. Schönbrodt

Keyword(s):

Response Time ◽

Trait Anxiety ◽

Significant Interaction ◽

Exploratory Analysis ◽

Human Interaction ◽

Trade Off ◽

Gaze Cueing ◽

Cueing Effect ◽

Negative Target ◽

Gaze Cues

Gaze Cueing (i.e.,the shifting of person B’s attention by following person A’s gaze) is closely linked with human interaction and learning. To make the most of this connection, researchers need to investigate possible moderators enhancing or reducing the extent of this attentional shifting. In this study we used a gaze cueing paradigm to demonstrate that the perceived trustworthiness of a cueing person constitutes such a moderator for female participants. Our results show a significant interaction between perceived trustworthiness and the response time trade-off between valid and invalid gaze cues (gaze cueing effect), as manifested in greater following of a person’s gaze if this person was trustworthy as opposed to the following of an untrustworthy person’s gaze. An additional exploratory analysis showed potentially moderating influences of trait-anxiety on this interaction (p= .057). The affective background of the experiment (i.e., using positive or negative target stimuli) had no influence.

Download Full-text