Gaze following emergence relies on both perceptual cues and social awareness

Astor, Kim; Thiele, Maleen; Gredebäck, Gustaf

doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2021.101121

Cited by 14 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The perception of general and biological motion also declines in normal ageing [ 65 , 66 ]. Given the relatedness of motion perception and social cognition [ 67 ], the non-social signal to be used should also control for movement. This would permit to isolate the social component of referential gaze in Pepper as final cause of these results.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-Related Differences in the Perception of Robotic Referential Gaze in Human-Robot Interaction

Morillo-Mendez

Schrooten

Loutfi

et al. 2022

Int J of Soc Robotics

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There is an increased interest in using social robots to assist older adults during their daily life activities. As social robots are designed to interact with older users, it becomes relevant to study these interactions under the lens of social cognition. Gaze following, the social ability to infer where other people are looking at, deteriorates with older age. Therefore, the referential gaze from robots might not be an effective social cue to indicate spatial locations to older users. In this study, we explored the performance of older adults, middle-aged adults, and younger controls in a task assisted by the referential gaze of a Pepper robot. We examined age-related differences in task performance, and in self-reported social perception of the robot. Our main findings show that referential gaze from a robot benefited task performance, although the magnitude of this facilitation was lower for older participants. Moreover, perceived anthropomorphism of the robot varied less as a result of its referential gaze in older adults. This research supports that social robots, even if limited in their gazing capabilities, can be effectively perceived as social entities. Additionally, this research suggests that robotic social cues, usually validated with young participants, might be less optimal signs for older adults.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-Related Differences in the Perception of Robotic Referential Gaze in Human-Robot Interaction

Morillo-Mendez

Schrooten

Loutfi

et al. 2022

Int J of Soc Robotics

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“…We focused on a fundamental ability implicated in many social-cognitive reasoning processes: gaze understanding -the ability to locate and use the attentional focus of an agent. The first component of this ability is often termed gaze following -turning one's eyes in the same direction as the gaze of another agent -and has been studied intensively (Astor, Thiele, & Gredebäck, 2021;Byers-Heinlein et al, 2021;Coelho, George, Conty, Hugueville, & Tijus, 2006;Del Bianco, Falck-Ytter, Thorup, & Gredebäck, 2019;Frischen, Bayliss, & Tipper, 2007;Hernik & Broesch, 2019;Itakura & Tanaka, 1998;Lee, Eskritt, Symons, & Muir, 1998;Moore, 2008;Shepherd, 2010;Tomasello, Hare, Lehmann, & Call, 2007). Following an agent's gaze provides insights into their intentions, thoughts, and feelings by acting as a "front end ability" (Brooks & Meltzoff, 2005, p. 535).…”

Section: A New Measure Of Gaze Understandingmentioning

confidence: 99%

TANGO: A reliable, open-source, browser-based task to assess individual differences in gaze understanding in 3 to 5-year-old children and adults

Prein¹,

Bohn²,

Kalinke³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Traditional measures of social cognition used in developmental research often lack satisfactory psychometric properties and are not designed to capture variation between individuals. Here we present TANGO (Task for Assessing iNdividual differences in Gaze understanding - Open); a brief (approx. 5–10min), reliable, open-source task to quantify individual differences in the understanding of gaze cues. Our interactive browser-based task works across devices and enables in-person and remote testing. The implemented spatial layout allows for discrete and continuous measures of participants’ click imprecision and is easily adaptable to different study requirements. Our task measures inter-individual differences in a child (N = 387) and an adult (N = 236) sample. Our two study versions and data collection modes yield comparable results that show substantial developmental gains: the older children are, the more accurately they locate the target. High internal consistency and test–retest reliability estimates underline that the captured variation is systematic. This work shows a promising way forward in studying individual differences in social cognition and will help us explore the structure and development of our core social-cognitive processes in greater detail.

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“…Therefore, seeing the trigger’s eyes directed to the smartphones may induce the observer to do the same, although the target of the gaze is a different device. The ability to synchronize visual attention on objects has a wide phylogenetic base, which is present not only in humans (Astor et al, 2021 ; Driver et al, 1999 ; Wolf et al, 2016 ) but also in other primate (Tomasello et al, 2007 ) and nonprimate species (dogs, Téglás et al, 2012 ; corvids, Schmidt et al, 2011 ). Gaze following appears early in life (Dalmaso et al, 2020 ; Gredebäck et al, 2010 ), and the resulting synchronization of actions seems to be one of the scaffolds in the formation of social bonding at a large scale (Chartrand & Lakin, 2013 ; Wolf et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Isolation Affects the Mimicry Response in the Use of Smartphones

Maglieri

Zanoli

Giunchi

et al. 2023

Hum Nat

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Humans are social animals that rely on different ways to interact with each other. The COVID-19 pandemic strongly changed our communication strategies. Because of the importance of direct contact for our species, we predict that immediately after the forced social isolation, people were more prone to engage in direct rather than in virtual interactions, thus showing a lower mimicry response in the use of smartphones. In a non-longitudinal study, we collected behavioral data under naturalistic contexts and directly compared the data of the mimicry response gathered immediately following the Italian lockdown (May–September 2020) with those gathered one year later (May–October 2021). Contrary to our expectations, the mimicry response in the use of smartphones was higher immediately after the lockdown than a year later. Probably the large use of these devices during the lockdown translated into a greater sensitivity to be affected by others’ smartphone manipulation. Indeed, social isolation modified, at least in the short term, the ways we interact with others by making us more prone to engage in “virtual” social interactions. The bright side of the coin unveiled by our findings is that the effect seems to diminish over time. The large behavioral dataset analyzed here (1,608 events; 248 people) also revealed that the mimicry response in the use of smartphones was higher between familiar subjects than between strangers. In this view, mimicry in manipulating smartphones can be considered an example of joint action that fosters behavioral synchrony between individuals that, in the long-term, can translate into the formation of social bonding.

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Gaze following emergence relies on both perceptual cues and social awareness

Cited by 14 publications

References 40 publications

Age-Related Differences in the Perception of Robotic Referential Gaze in Human-Robot Interaction

Age-Related Differences in the Perception of Robotic Referential Gaze in Human-Robot Interaction

TANGO: A reliable, open-source, browser-based task to assess individual differences in gaze understanding in 3 to 5-year-old children and adults

Social Isolation Affects the Mimicry Response in the Use of Smartphones

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