Just look away: Gaze aversions as an overt attentional disengagement mechanism

Abeles, Dekel; Yuval-Greenberg, Shlomit

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2017.06.021

Cited by 30 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Relevant research showed that distracting stimuli are avoided more often when saliency of visual distractors and cognitive load of the internal task are high. In those studies, distractors had very high saliency, such as eye contact (Doherty-Sneddon & Phelps, 2005) and moving gratings (Abeles & Yuval-Greenberg, 2017). In the present study, distractors were not as distracting.…”

Section: Effect Of Distractor Presencecontrasting

confidence: 38%

“…When solving a problem by insight, people look away from the area where the problem is presented more often than when solving it by an analytical approach (Salvi et al, 2015). Studies on gaze aversion (Abeles & Yuval-Greenberg, 2017;Doherty-Sneddon & Phelps, 2005) show that the active avoidance strategy of gaze aversion is sensitive to both saliency of visual distractors and cognitive load of the non-visual (internal) task. For example, gaze is more often averted during face-to-face questioning -which involves highly salient eye contact -than during video-mediated questioning (Doherty-Sneddon & Phelps, 2005).…”

Section: Eye Behavior Associated With Idcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, gaze is more often averted during face-to-face questioning -which involves highly salient eye contact -than during video-mediated questioning (Doherty-Sneddon & Phelps, 2005). Further, participants avert their gaze more often when the distractor becomes more salient (i.e., faster movement of the drifting grating in screen center, (Abeles & Yuval-Greenberg, 2017)). This effect did not appear when the main task was very easy; suggesting that adaption to distraction might only happen when the main task needs cognitive resources and does not allow for simultaneous processing of sensory information.…”

Section: Eye Behavior Associated With Idcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Results from gaze aversion research may have suggested some adaptation of eye behavior to the distractor condition (Abeles, Amit, & Yuval-greenberg, 2018;Abeles & Yuval-Greenberg, 2017;Doherty-Sneddon & Phelps, 2005). Relevant research showed that distracting stimuli are avoided more often when saliency of visual distractors and cognitive load of the internal task are high.…”

Section: Effect Of Distractor Presencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, active ocular shielding mechanisms (e.g. gaze aversion; (Abeles & Yuval-Greenberg, 2017;Doherty-Sneddon & Phelps, 2005)) may only play a role when saliency of distraction exceeds the threshold of the desensitization by task focus.…”

Section: Effect Of Distractor Presencementioning

confidence: 99%

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Eye behavior does not adapt to expected visual distraction during internally directed cognition

Annerer‐Walcher¹,

Körner²,

Benedek³

2018

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When focused on a specific internal task like calculating a multiplication in mind we are able to ignore sensory distraction. This may be achieved by effective perceptual decoupling during internally directed cognition. The present study investigated whether decoupling from external events during internally directed cognition represents an active shielding mechanism that adapts to expected external distraction or a passive/automatic shielding mechanism that is independent of external distraction. Participants performed multiplications in mind (e.g. 26 x 7), a task that required to turn attention inward as soon as the problem was encoded. At the beginning of a block of trials, participants were informed whether or not distractors could appear during the calculation period, thereby potentially allowing them to prepare for the distractors. We tracked their eye behavior as markers of perceptual decoupling and workload. Turning attention inward to calculate the multiplication elicited evidence of perceptual decoupling for five of six eye parameters: blink rate, saccade and microsaccade rate increased, gaze was less constricted to the center, and pupils dilated. Although participants perceived blocks with distractors as more challenging, performance and eye behavior markers of both perceptual decoupling and workload were unaffected. This result supports the notion of perceptual decoupling as an automatic mechanism: focusing inward induces desensitization to external events independent of external distraction.

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Section: Effect Of Distractor Presencecontrasting

confidence: 38%