Is There a "Language of the Eyes"? Evidence from Normal Adults, and Adults with Autism or Asperger Syndrome

Baron‐Cohen, Simon; Wheelwright, Sally; Jolliffe, Therese

doi:10.1080/713756761

Cited by 755 publications

(572 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The ease with which the eye tracker induced social presence effect was eliminated comes as a surprise. We and others have demonstrated that the eyes are a profoundly important social stimulus (Birmingham & Kingstone, 2009;Baron-Cohen et al, 1997;Emery, 2000;Kobayashi & Kohshima, 1997;Risko et al, 2012) and thus monitoring an individual's eyes could be thought of as a rather invasive form of monitoring. In addition, socially appropriate looking patterns are likely highly practiced, nevertheless, the fleeting nature of the eye tracker induced social presence effect would seem to suggest that either (a) socially appropriate looking patterns are themselves difficult to monitor and maintain or (b) the eye Social presence effect of wearable computing 11 tracker's activation of these mechanisms is significant but vulnerable to habituation as a user becomes accustomed to the device.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wearable computing: Will it make people prosocial?

Nasiopoulos

Risko

Foulsham

et al. 2014

British J of Psychology

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We recently reported that people who wear an eye tracker modify their natural looking behaviour in a prosocial manner. This change in looking behaviour represents a potential concern for researchers who wish to use eye trackers to understand the functioning of human attention. On the other hand, it may offer a real boon to manufacturers and consumers of wearable computing (e.g., Google Glass), for if wearable computing causes people to behave in a prosocial manner, then the public's fear that people with wearable computing will invade their privacy is unfounded. Critically, both of these divergent implications are grounded on the assumption that the prosocial behavioural effect of wearing an eye tracker is sustained for a prolonged period of time. Our study reveals that on the very first wearing of an eye tracker, and in less than 10 minutes, the prosocial effect of an eye tracker is abolished, but by drawing attention back to the eye tracker the implied presence effect is easily reactivated. This suggests that eye trackers induce a transient social presence effect which is rendered dormant when attention is shifted away from the source of implied presence. This is good news for researchers who use eye trackers to measure attention and behaviour; and could be bad news for advocates of wearable computing in everyday life.Words:217

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wearable computing: Will it make people prosocial?

Nasiopoulos

Risko

Foulsham

et al. 2014

British J of Psychology

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“…The eyes convey important information for facial identification (Gold, Sekuler, & Bennett, 2004;Heisz & Shore, 2008) and intention detection (Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, & Jolliffe, 1997). Clinically impaired populations characterized by extreme social deficits are known to avoid the eyes during face scanning.…”

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confidence: 99%

Shyness and face scanning in children

Brunet

Heisz

Mondloch

et al. 2009

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

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“…For example, individuals with autism do not understand the mental significance of the eyes; they show impairments in recognising other people's complex mental states and intentions from the eyes (Baron-Cohen, Campbell, Karmiloff-Smith, Grant, & Walker, 1995;Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, & Jolliffe, 1997). Studies measuring eye-movements during looking at facial images have shown that individuals with autism scan the mouth region more than the eye region of the face, a pattern of results which is opposite to that observed in normally developing individuals (Klin, Jones, Schultz, Volkmar, & Cohen, 2002;Pelphrey et al, 2002).…”

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confidence: 99%

Skin Conductance Responses to Another Person’s Gaze in Children with Autism

Kylliäinen

Hietanen

2006

J Autism Dev Disord

197

153

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The effects of another person's gaze on physiological arousal were investigated by measuring skin conductance responses (SCR). Twelve able children with autism and 12 control children were shown face stimuli with straight gaze (eye contact) or averted gaze on a computer monitor. In children with autism, the responses to straight gaze were stronger than responses to averted gaze, whereas there was no difference in the responses to these gaze conditions in normally developing children. Thus, these results showed that eye gaze elicited differential pattern of SCR in normally developing children and in children with autism. It is possible that the enhanced arousal to eye contact may contribute to the abnormal gaze behaviour frequently reported in the context of autism.

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Is There a "Language of the Eyes"? Evidence from Normal Adults, and Adults with Autism or Asperger Syndrome

Cited by 755 publications

References 23 publications

Wearable computing: Will it make people prosocial?

Wearable computing: Will it make people prosocial?

Shyness and face scanning in children

Skin Conductance Responses to Another Person’s Gaze in Children with Autism

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