Visual attentional orienting by eye gaze: A meta-analytic review of the gaze-cueing effect.

Abstract

Given limitations in the amount of visual information that a person can simultaneously process through to conscious perception, selective visual attention is necessary. Visual signals in the environment aid this selection process by triggering reflexive shifts of covert attention to locations of potential importance. One such signal appears to be others' eye gaze. Indeed, a gaze-cueing effect, whereby healthy adults respond faster to targets that are presented at locations cued rather than miscued by eye gaze has been consistently observed in the empirical literature. Critically though, the influences of task and cue features on this effect are not well understood. To address this gap, we report a meta-analytic integration of 423 gaze-cueing effects using a multilevel approach. A gaze-cueing effect emerged across all levels of the assessed task and cue features, indicating that others' eye gaze reliably directs observers' attention. We found that the magnitude of the gaze-cueing effect was moderated by whether direct gaze cues preceded directional gaze cues or not; the cue-target stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA), whether participants had to detect, localize, or categorize targets; and the cue's facial expression. Whether or not the gaze cue remained on screen after the target appeared, and whether schematic faces, computer-generated faces, or images of real faces were used as cues, did not appear to reliably function as moderators. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed, particularly in relation to the social attention system. Public Significance StatementThe findings from this meta-analysis provide the strongest evidence to date that others' eye gaze is a powerful social cue that reliably directs observers to reflexively shift their own visual attention such that they engage in joint attention with the gazing person. The findings also provide insights into the specific circumstances in which this reflexive gaze-cued attention is enhanced.

Influences of eye gaze cues on memory and its mechanisms: The function and evolution of social attention

“…These morphological features are vital for humans to form face and gaze perceptions (Kano et al, 2022). Some psychological researchers hold that the human brain has evolved a psychological mechanism to detect eyes in the surroundings with a priority perceptual preference for others' gaze direction (Driver et al, 1999;Frischen et al, 2007;Wu et al, 2014;McKay et al, 2021), which reflects a social-biological response to gaze cues (Emery, 2000). Interestingly, individuals' attention can also be guided by the eye-gaze cues of cross-species (e.g., dog gaze cues), suggesting the evolutionary implications of gaze cues (Corneille et al, 2009).…”

Exploring the Social Environment with the Eyes: A Review of the Impact of Facial Stimuli on Saccadic Trajectories

“…However, the pupil response to cognitive modulations can require seconds to fully emerge [ 7 , 45 ], while the effects of social stimuli on attentional mechanisms are generally fast rising and fast decaying [ 15 , 41 ]. For example, it is known that a face with an averted gaze can elicit attentional shifts towards the same location (i.e., gaze cueing of attention [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 32 , 46 , 47 ]), but these shifts can be detected within a relatively narrow time window after averted-gaze onset (i.e., roughly 100–1000 ms; [ 46 ]). This suggests that saccadic trajectories would be preferable to pupil size when investigating the temporal dynamics underlying social orienting.…”

Memory for Gaze Cues Can Attenuate Change Blindness in the Flicker Paradigm

“…In social situations, it can be useful for observers to direct attention to what other people are paying attention 1 . Indeed, there is a large literature demonstrating that social cues, such as another person's gaze, affect attention 2 . Experiments have used a variety of stimuli (from schematic diagrams of eyes or cropped faces 3,4 to pictures of people in real world environments 5,6 ) and tasks (from target detection 3 , to studying pictures 6 , to change detection 5 ), to demonstrate that objects that are the target of another person's gaze are prioritized.…”