How ubiquitous is the direct-gaze advantage? Evidence for an averted-gaze advantage in a gaze-discrimination task

verfasst von

Eva Riechelmann, Matthias Gamer, Anne Böckler, Lynn Huestegge

Abstract

Human eye gaze conveys an enormous amount of socially relevant information, and the rapid assessment of gaze direction is of particular relevance in order to adapt behavior accordingly. Specifically, previous research demonstrated evidence for an advantage of processing direct (vs. averted) gaze. The present study examined discrimination performance for gaze direction (direct vs. averted) under controlled presentation conditions: Using a backward-masking gaze-discrimination task, photographs of faces with direct and averted gaze were briefly presented, followed by a mask stimulus. Additionally, effects of facial context on gaze discrimination were assessed by either presenting gaze direction in isolation (i.e., by only showing the eye region) or in the context of an upright or inverted face. Across three experiments, we consistently observed a facial context effect with highest discrimination performance for faces presented in upright position, lower performance for inverted faces, and lowest performance for eyes presented in isolation. Additionally, averted gaze was generally responded to faster and with higher accuracy than direct gaze, indicating an averted-gaze advantage. Overall, the results suggest that direct gaze is not generally associated with processing advantages, thereby highlighting the important role of presentation conditions and task demands in gaze perception.

Organisationseinheit(en)

Institut für Psychologie

Externe Organisation(en)

Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg

Typ

Artikel

Journal

Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics

Band

83

Seiten

215-237

Anzahl der Seiten

23

ISSN

1943-3921

Publikationsdatum

01.2021

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Sprache und Linguistik, Experimentelle und kognitive Psychologie, Sensorische Systeme, Linguistik und Sprache

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-020-02147-3 (Zugang: Offen)