An experiment was conducted to determine the degree to which individuals focus upon the eye region of others while visually inspecting their faces. Using an eye-tracking camera, 16 male subjects spent approximately 40% of their looking time focused upon the eye region of facial photographs, with each of the remaining parts of the face being looked at less.

Can affect-generating cues be processed outside awareness? A study is reported that examined the effect on subjective affect caused by stimuli presented subliminally. Threatening images, neutral images, and humorous images were embedded in three (separate) videotapes, which were shown to subjects at exposure times that precluded recognition of the images. Self-rated state anxiety assessed immediately afterward (via two separate measures) was highest among subjects exposed to the threatening images, lower in the group exposed to the neutral images, and lowest in the group exposed to the humorous images. In contrast, but consistent with expectations, the subliminal stimuli had no effect on a measure of trait anxiety.

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The role of hand gestures in human communication was examined in an experiment that manipulated communicator-receiver visual accessibility and freedom of the communicator's hand movements. While gesturing occurred primarily during periods of speech rather than silence, the visual availability of 10 speakers' hand gestures did not significantly enhance receivers' ability to decode and act upon task-related messages. Hand restraint did not significantly affect speakers' verbal fluency or total verbal output. The mere visual presence of an interactant had a greater impact on speech disfluency than did hand restraint.