Disentangling the Effects of an Adult Model's Eye Gaze and Head Orientation on Young Infants' Processing of a Previously Attended Object

Abstract

In order to disentangle the effects of an adult model's eye gaze and head orientation on infants' processing of objects attended to by the adult, we presented 4-month-olds with faces that either (1) shifted eye gaze toward or away from an object while the head stayed stationary or (2) that turned their head while maintaining gaze directed straight ahead. Infants' responses to the previously attended and unattended objects were measured using eyetracking and event-related potentials. In both conditions, infants responded to objects that were not cued by the adult's head or eye gaze shift with more visual attention and an increased negative central (Nc) component relative to cued objects. This suggests that cued objects had been encoded more effectively, whereas uncued objects required further processing. We conclude that eye gaze and head orientation act independently as cues to direct infants' attention and object processing. Both head orientation and eye gaze, when presented in motion, even override the effects of incongruent stationary information from the other kind of cue.Infants' ability to follow gaze has inspired much research since Scaife and Bruner's seminal demonstration that infants increasingly follow others' line of regard across the first year (Scaife & Bruner, 1975). By 3 months of age, Correspondence should be sent to Stefanie Hoehl,

Theta- and alpha-band EEG activity in response to eye gaze cues in early infancy

“…Alpha desynchronization is a sensitive measure for attentional mechanisms that suppress irrelevant information and therefore focus attention on relevant information (Ward, 2003). Social cues such as eye gaze or head turn can guide infants' attention and can lead to enhanced memory encoding of cued objects in 4-month-olds (Hoehl, Wahl, et al, 2014;Hood, Willen, & Driver, 1998;Reid & Striano, 2005;Reid et al, 2004;Wahl et al, 2013). Thus, alpha desynchronization in the object-directed condition may reflect focused attention to gaze cued objects and thereby be related to social learning processes (Hoehl, Michel, et al, 2014).…”

“…Thereby it could enable or at least facilitate object learning in such situations. Similar processes might take place already at 4 months as infants differentiate between eye gazes toward and away from objects and build stronger memory representations for cued objects (Hoehl et al, 2008;Hoehl, Wahl, et al, 2014;Reid & Striano, 2005;Reid et al, 2004;Wahl et al, 2013). In the current study, eye gaze that is directed toward an object identifies it as an object that is of high relevance for the infant.…”

“…In a live paradigm measuring looking times, infants at 7 and 9 but not at 4 and 5 months of age showed enhanced object processing in a joint attention situation (Cleveland, Schug, & Striano, 2007;. Studies that presented similar stimuli on a screen found that infants were able to use social cues for object learning already at 4 months (Hoehl, Wahl, & Pauen, 2014;Reid & Striano, 2005;Reid, Striano, Kaufman, & Johnson, 2004;Wahl, Michel, Pauen, & Hoehl, 2013). These studies compared ERPs and looking times in response to objects that were previously cued by another person's eye gaze and/or head turn with objects that were not cued.…”

“…One possible mechanism behind these changes is how infants are able to control their attention. At 4 months of age, infants supposedly react to eye gaze cues due to an automatic shift of attention (Hoehl, Wahl, et al, 2014;Moore & Corkum, 1998). During the following two months, it has been proposed that an attention network starts to monitor and integrate infants' own and others' gaze direction and behavior.…”

Show Me the World: Object Categorization and Socially Guided Object Learning in Infancy

“…Infants paid increased attention to uncued objects than to previously gaze‐cued objects, presumably because the nontargets appeared more novel and thus needed more processing . A similar effect occurred when the actor moved only her eyes or only her head toward or away from the object . Providing a nonsocial object (e.g., a car) as “actor” that turned its front toward the target did not elicit this effect.…”