Abstract
When someone observes another individual suddenly shifting gaze, the observer’s attention automatically and rapidly orients to the same location. Such gaze cuing of attention has properties similar to those of exogenous cuing. We investigated whether gaze cuing is also like exogenous cuing in that it is observed for both spatial and object-/head-centered frames of reference. That is, when the face that produces the gaze cue is presented on its side, tilted 90° from upright, will attention be simultaneously directed to where the eyes would have been looking if the face had been presented uprightand toward the actual spatial direction of gaze? It is demonstrated that gaze cues do indeed orient attention in both spatial and object-centered frames, that these effects are of similar magnitude, and that such orienting is relatively rapidly computed.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bartlett, J. C., &Searcy, J. (1993). Inversion and configuration of faces.Cognitive Psychology,25, 281–316.
Bayliss, A. P., di Pellegrino, G., &Tipper, S. P. (2004). Orienting of attention via observed eye gaze is head-centred.Cognition,94, B1-B10.
Bayliss, A. P., di Pellegrino, G., &Tipper, S. P. (2005). Sex differences in eye gaze and symbolic cueing of attention.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,58A, 631–650.
Bayliss, A. P., &Tipper, S. P. (2005). Gaze and arrow cueing of attention reveals individual differences along the autism spectrum as a function of target context.British Journal of Psychology,96, 95–114.
Behrmann, M., &Tipper, S. P. (1999). Attention accesses multiple reference frames: Evidence from visual neglect.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,25, 83–101.
Driver, J., Davis, G., Ricciardelli, P., Kidd, P., Maxwell, E., &Baron-Cohen, S. (1999). Gaze perception triggers reflexive visuospatial orienting.Visual Cognition,6, 509–540.
Egly, R., Driver, J., &Rafal, R. D. (1994). Shifting visual attention between objects and locations: Evidence from normal and parietal lesion subjects.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,123, 161–177.
Emery, N. J. (2000). The eyes have it: The neuroethnology, function and evolution of social gaze.Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews,24, 581–604.
Friesen, C. K., &Kingstone, A. (1998). The eyes have it! Reflexive orienting is triggered by nonpredictive gaze.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,5, 490–495.
Friesen, C. K., &Kingstone, A. (2003). Abrupt onsets and gaze direction cues trigger independent reflexive attentional effects.Cognition,87, B1-B10.
Frischen, A., &Tipper, S. P. (2004). Orienting attention via observed gaze shift evokes longer term inhibitory effects: Implications for social interactions, attention, and memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General,133, 516–533.
Hietanen, J. K. (1999). Does your gaze direction and head orientation shift my visual attention?NeuroReport,10, 3443–3447.
Hietanen, J. K. (2002). Social attention orienting integrates visual information from head and body orientation.Psychological Research,66, 174–179.
Hietanen, J. K., &Leppanen, J. M. (2003). Does facial expression affect attention orienting by gaze direction cues?Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,29, 1228–1243.
Hommel, B., &Lippa, Y. (1995). S-R compatibility effects due to contextdependent spatial stimulus coding.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,2, 370–374.
Hommel, B., Pratt, J., Colzato, L., &Godijn, R. (2001). Symbolic control of visual attention.Psychological Science,12, 360–365.
Jenkins, J., &Langton, S. R. H. (2003). Configural processing in the perception of eye-gaze direction.Perception,32, 1181–1188.
Jordan, H., &Tipper, S. P. (1998). Object-based inhibition of return in static displays.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,5, 504–509.
Kingstone, A., Friesen, C. K., &Gazzaniga, M. S. (2000). Reflexive joint attention depends on lateralized cortical connections.Psychological Science,11, 159–166.
Kingstone, A., Smilek, D., Ristic, J., Friesen, C. K., &Eastwood, J. D. (2003). Attention, researchers! It is time to take a look at the real world.Current Directions in Psychological Science,12, 176–180.
Langton, S. R. H. (2000). The mutual influence of gaze and head orientation in the analysis of social attention direction.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,53A, 825–845.
Langton, S. R. H., &Bruce, V. (1999). Reflexive visual orienting in response to the social attention of others.Visual Cognition,6, 541–567.
Langton, S. R. H., &Bruce, V. (2000). You must see the point: Automatic processing of cues to the direction of social attention.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,26, 747–757.
Langton, S. R. H., Watt, R. J., &Bruce, V. (2000). Do the eyes have it? Cues to the direction of social attention.Trends in Cognitive Sciences,4, 50–59.
Lawson, R. (1999). Achieving visual object constancy across plane rotation and depth rotation.Acta Psychologica,102, 221–245.
Leek, E. C., Reppa, I., &Tipper, S. P. (2003). Inhibition of return for objects and locations in static displays.Perception & Psychophysics,65, 388–395.
Moore, C., &Dunham, P. J. (Eds.) (1995).Joint attention: Its origins and role in development. Hove, U.K.: Erlbaum.
Perrett, D. I., Hietanen, J. K., Oram, M. W., &Benson, P. J. (1992). Organisation and functions of cells responsive to faces in the temporal cortex.Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London: Series B,335, 23–30.
Perrett, D. I., Smith, P. A. J., Potter, D. D., Mistlin, A. J., Head, A. S., Milner, A. D., &Jeeves, M. A. (1985). Visual cells in the temporal cortex sensitive to face view and gaze direction.Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Series B,223, 293–317.
Posner, M. I., &Cohen, Y. (1984). Components of visual orienting. In H. Bouma & D. G. Bouwhuis (Eds.),Attention and performance X: Control of language processes (pp. 531–556). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Proctor, R. W., &Pick, D. F. (1999). Deconstructing Marilyn: Robust effects of face contexts on stimulus-response compatibility.Memory & Cognition,27, 986–995.
Shepard, R. N., &Metzler, J. (1971). Mental rotation of threedimensional objects.Science,171, 701–703.
Tipper, S. P., &Behrmann, M. (1996). Object-centered not scenebased visual neglect.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,22, 1261–1278.
Tipper, S. P., Jordan, H., &Weaver, B. (1999). Scene-based and objectcentered inhibition of return: Evidence for dual orienting mechanisms.Perception & Psychophysics,61, 50–60.
Tipper, S. P., &Weaver, B. (1998). The medium of attention: Locationbased, object-centered, or scene-based? In R. D. Wright (Ed.),Visual attention (Vancouver Studies in Cognitive Science, Vol. 8, pp. 77–107). New York: Oxford University Press.
Tipples, J. (2002). Eye gaze is not unique: Automatic orienting in response to uninformative arrows.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,9, 314–318.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This work was supported by ESRC Postgraduate Studentship R42200134055 to A.P.B.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bayliss, A.P., Tipper, S.P. Gaze cues evoke both spatial and object-centered shifts of attention. Perception & Psychophysics 68, 310–318 (2006). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193678
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193678