Gaze Elicits Social and Nonsocial Attentional Orienting: An Interplay of Shared and Unique Conflict Processing Mechanisms

• Published in: Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance 2022-08, Vol.48 (8), p.824-841
• Main Authors: Hemmerich, Klara, Narganes-Pineda, Cristina, Marotta, Andrea, Martín-Arévalo, Elisa, Jiménez, Luis, Lupiáñez, Juan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Coexistence; Conflict; Cues; Eye Fixation; Female; Human; Information processing; Interference (Learning); Male; Orienting Responses; Stimulus; Visual Attention
• ISSN: 0096-1523; 1939-1277
• DOI: 10.1037/xhp0001015

Subtle to no attentional differences have been broadly observed when using gaze and arrows as orienting cues. However, recent studies have found opposite effects when they are used as targets in spatial interference tasks, with arrows eliciting faster responses when their position is congruent with the indicated direction and gaze producing faster responses in incongruent conditions. In two preregistered experiments aimed at exploring the mechanisms supporting these findings, we examined whether the congruency sequence effects (CSE) elicited by gaze and arrows generalized from one stimulus to another, using an intrablock design where the type of stimuli was manipulated on a trial-by-trial basis. Typical CSE were observed for arrows, with a decrease of congruency effects after incongruent trials, and reversed CSE for gaze, with an increased inversion of congruency effects after incongruent trials. Both patterns occurred independently of the preceding type of target, showing that congruency effects can decrease after positive outcomes (e.g., arrow trials following an incongruent gaze trial), and generalized across different nonsocial and social stimuli as shown in a third experiment. These results are consistent with the coexistence of a shared spatial interference component between gaze and arrow trials, potentially responsible for the CSE obtained in switching target trials, and an additional social dimension, exclusively engaged in gaze trials. Public Significance Statement This study suggests that the direction of gaze offers valuable information to overcome other nonsocial sources of conflict. Lateralized gaze seems to produce a spatial interference effect, shared with nonsocial stimuli like arrows, and a specific social conflict effect. When the observer's and observed gaze meet in the center of the task area, a possible joint attention effect might facilitate faster and more accurate processing of the direction of the gaze. Whereas a gaze looking outwards of the task area leads to less accurate and slower responses, perhaps due to a process of "joint distraction." These findings may be useful in applications to populations with difficulties in the identification and interpretation of social markers. Priming of specific cognitive control processes, rather than relative efficiency of processing, seems to underlie congruency sequence effects.