Effects of Head Orientation on Gaze Perception: How Positive Congruency Effects Can be Reversed

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.

Effects of peripheral eccentricity and head orientation on gaze discrimination

“…Thus, the limit of accurate gaze discrimination was between 3° and 6° of eccentricity, i.e., within central vision, in line with previous studies (Burton et al, 2009;Loomis et al, 2008;Yokoyama et al, 2014). Previous research using centrally presented faces has shown that gaze judgments can be strongly affected by head orientation (Anstis et al, 1969;Kluttz et al, 2009;Langton, 2000;Langton et al, 2004;Ricciardelli & Driver, 2008;Seyama & Nagayama, 2005;Shirama, 2012;Todorović, 2009;Wollaston, 1824), and thus that head and eye cues are both necessary for gaze judgments even in fovea. Using covert attention, the present study showed that head orientation starts biasing the gaze direction judgment as early as ±3° and that this bias increases with eccentricity.…”

“…Many behavioural studies in humans have shown that gaze judgments can be affected by the orientation of the head (Anstis et al, 1969;Kluttz et al, 2009;Langton, 2000;Langton et al, 2004;Ricciardelli & Driver, 2008;Seyama & Nagayama, 2005;Shirama, 2012;Todorović, 2006Todorović, , 2009Wollaston, 1824), thus supporting the DAD hypothesis. For example, reaction times to discriminate gaze direction are shorter when the eyes and head are oriented in the same direction than when they are oriented in different directions (Itier et al, 2007a(Itier et al, , 2007bLangton, 2000;Seyama & Nagayama, 2005;Todorović, 2009), reflecting a congruency effect between eye direction cues and head direction cues.…”

The Mediating Effects of Facial Expression on Spatial Interference Between Gaze Direction and Gaze Location

“…Inconsistent gaze direction (e.g., the head turned to the left with the eyes directed to the right) interferes with judgements of head Jones 107 orientation (Langton, 2000), but judgements of gaze direction have been found to be enhanced when gaze and head orientation are inconsistent (Ricciardielli, Baylis, & Driver, 2000). Ricciardelli and Driver (2008) found that this reverse congruency effect only appeared when speeded responses were not required, and they argued that head orientation becomes relatively more important when speeded judgements are needed. With more speeded decisions under time pressure, they argued that only gross head orientation and gaze direction were coded in parallel to produce a 'positive' congruency effect.…”

“…Further, this trend toward a reverse congruency effect was evident when only the eyes were visible in the absence of other facial features, and it reduced when other facial features were added. Cañadas and Lupiáñez (2012) suggested that earlier studies, such as those of Ricciardelli and Driver (2008) did not control eye contact, and that there may be more rapid detection of gaze direction when gaze is directed towards the perceiver than when gaze is averted. In a series of experiments, they found a reverse congruency effect such that, for example, a face located on the left side of a computer screen but with eyes directed towards the right (i.e., towards the viewer) produced faster response times to identify the direction of the gaze compared with a face located on the left side and with gaze directed to the left.…”

Effect of Gaze Direction on Orienting of Attention in Patients with Schizophrenia: Attention or Social Cognition Deficit?

“…On the other hand, if the target appears in a different position from the cue, the attention must first be unlocked from the area indicated by the cue and then redirected to the new location. The high number of cognitive operations required to process an invalid target involves a great reaction time [21,22].…”