Gaze cueing of attention: Visual attention, social cognition, and individual differences.

During social interactions, people's eyes convey a wealth of information about their direction of attention and their emotional and mental states. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of past and current research into the perception of gaze behavior and its effect on the observer. This encompasses the perception of gaze direction and its influence on perception of the other person, as well as gaze-following behavior such as joint attention, in infant, adult, and clinical populations. Particular focus is given to the gaze-cueing paradigm that has been used to investigate the mechanisms of joint attention. The contribution of this paradigm has been significant and will likely continue to advance knowledge across diverse fields within psychology and neuroscience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Orienting Attention Via Observed Gaze Shift Evokes Longer Term Inhibitory Effects: Implications for Social Interactions, Attention, and Memory.

One component of successful social interactions is joint attention. It is now well established that when a gaze shift is observed, the observer's attention rapidly and automatically orients to the same location in space. It is also established that such attention shifts via gaze are relatively transient and do not evoke subsequent inhibition processes. In contrast to this conventional view, the authors conducted a series of studies that showed that these properties of gaze attention shift are not necessarily the case in all situations. The article demonstrates (a) gaze cuing over longer intervals than previously observed, (b) that these longer term effects can be inhibitory, and (c) that the longer term gaze cuing effects do not appear to be contingent on retrieval associated with a particular face identity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual search for faces with emotional expressions.

The goal of this review is to critically examine contradictory findings in the study of visual search for emotionally expressive faces. Several key issues are addressed: Can emotional faces be processed preattentively and guide attention? What properties of these faces influence search efficiency? Is search moderated by the emotional state of the observer? The authors argue that the evidence is consistent with claims that (a) preattentive search processes are sensitive to and influenced by facial expressions of emotion, (b) attention guidance is influenced by a dynamic interplay of emotional and perceptual factors, and (c) visual search for emotional faces is influenced by the emotional state of the observer to some extent. The authors also argue that the way in which contextual factors interact to determine search performance needs to be explored further to draw sound conclusions about the precise influence of emotional expressions on search efficiency. Methodological considerations (e.g., set size, distractor background, task set) and ecological limitations of the visual search task are discussed. Finally, specific recommendations are made for future research directions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)