Effects of head orientation on gaze perception: how positive congruency effects can be reversed.

Full Abstract

Several past studies have considered how perceived head orientation may be combined with perceived gaze direction in judging where someone else is attending. In three experiments we tested the impact of different sources of information by examining the role of head orientation in gaze-direction judgements when presenting: (a) the whole face; (b) the face with the nose masked; (c) just the eye region, removing all other head-orientation cues apart from some visible part of the nose; or (d) just the eyes, with all parts of the nose masked and no head orientation cues present other than those within the eyes themselves. We also varied time pressure on gaze direction judgements. The results showed that gaze judgements were not solely driven by the eye region. Gaze perception can also be affected by parts of the head and face, but in a manner that depends on the time constraints for gaze direction judgements. While "positive" congruency effects were found with time pressure (i.e., faster left/right judgements of seen gaze when the seen head deviated towards the same side as that gaze), the opposite applied without time pressure.

Author information

Author/s: Ricciardelli, Paola (P); Driver, Jon (J);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy. paola.ricciardelli(-atsign-)unimib.it

Grants: (Agency:Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) ; (Agency:Wellcome Trust)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) (Q J Exp Psychol (Colchester)), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Mar; vol 61 (issue 3) : pp 491-504

Dates: Created 2008/06/16; Completed 2008/08/13;

PMID: 17853198, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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