Peripheral processing of gaze.

Florey, Joseph; Clifford, Colin W. G.; Dakin, Steven C.; Mareschal, Isabelle

doi:10.1037/xhp0000068

Cited by 24 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…The faces in our investigation were much smaller by comparison (1.01° × 0.84°) and were available for unlimited inspection. These kinds of differences could reasonably be expected to influence the relative weighting of head and eyes in the computation of gaze, particularly if they impact the visibility or salience of these features (Florey, Dakin, Clifford, & Mareschal, 2015; Florey, Clifford, Dakin, & Mareschal, 2016; Gamer & Hecht, 2007). For example, information from the head might be weighted more heavily when a face makes a small image on the viewer’s retina, as when seen from a great distance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The center of attention: Metamers, sensitivity, and bias in the emergent perception of gaze

Sweeny

Whitney

2017

Vision Research

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A person’s gaze reveals much about their focus of attention and intentions. Sensitive perception of gaze is thus highly relevant for social interaction, especially when it is directed toward the viewer. Yet observers also tend to overestimate the likelihood that gaze is directed toward them. How might the visual system balance these competing goals, maximizing sensitivity for discriminating gazes that are relatively direct, while at the same time allowing many gazes to appear as if they look toward the viewer? Perceiving gaze is an emergent visual process that involves integrating information from the eyes with the rotation of the head. Here, we examined whether the visual system leverages emergent representation to balance these competing goals. We measured perceived gaze for a large range of pupil and head combinations and found that head rotation has a nonlinear influence on a person’s apparent direction of looking, especially when pupil rotations are relatively direct. These perceptual distortions could serve to expand representational space and thereby enhance discriminability of gazes that are relatively direct. We also found that the emergent perception of gaze supports an abundance of direct gaze metamers—different combinations of head and pupil rotations that combine to generate the appearance of gaze directed toward the observer. Our results thus demonstrate a way in which the visual system flexibly integrates information from facial features to optimize social perception. Many gazes can be made to look toward you, yet similar gazes need not appear alike.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The center of attention: Metamers, sensitivity, and bias in the emergent perception of gaze

Sweeny

Whitney

2017

Vision Research

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“…have observed sampling efficiencies at or below one for motion in children. Given that judging gaze direction of faces in the periphery is much poorer than in the fovea2022, it is not surprising that averaging gaze direction in a crowd of faces (most of which fall in the periphery) is also poor. The increase in effective sample size in the “large eyes” condition further supports this explanation of reduced peripheral resolution for the gaze condition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…who found that observers performed equally well on an emotion averaging task, regardless of whether information was available around fixation or not. It is possible that this may reflect differences in the stimuli used; peripheral emotion can be perceived with some degree of accuracy49 whereas peripheral gaze cannot2122. Alternatively, it may be the case that observers alter their sampling strategy to adapt to the structure of the image.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although precision of judgements of gaze direction is generally high when faces are viewed foveally, performance decreases when faces are in the periphery2021. In particular Florey et al 22. found that in the periphery, although observers could still discriminate between leftwards and rightwards gaze directions, perceived direction of gaze was more influenced by head rotation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatial limitations in averaging social cues

Florey

Clifford

Dakin

et al. 2016

Sci Rep

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The direction of social attention from groups provides stronger cueing than from an individual. It has previously been shown that both basic visual features such as size or orientation and more complex features such as face emotion and identity can be averaged across multiple elements. Here we used an equivalent noise procedure to compare observers’ ability to average social cues with their averaging of a non-social cue. Estimates of observers’ internal noise (uncertainty associated with processing any individual) and sample-size (the effective number of gaze-directions pooled) were derived by fitting equivalent noise functions to discrimination thresholds. We also used reverse correlation analysis to estimate the spatial distribution of samples used by participants. Averaging of head-rotation and cone-rotation was less noisy and more efficient than averaging of gaze direction, though presenting only the eye region of faces at a larger size improved gaze averaging performance. The reverse correlation analysis revealed greater sampling areas for head rotation compared to gaze. We attribute these differences in averaging between gaze and head cues to poorer visual processing of faces in the periphery. The similarity between head and cone averaging are examined within the framework of a general mechanism for averaging of object rotation.

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“…Although this integrative process can be quite linear (at least with adults; Otsuka, Mareschal, & Clifford, ), it is also known to be flexible at the group level, with non‐linear weighting for particular combinations of head and eye rotations (Sweeny & Whitney, ) or according to each feature's salience or visibility (Florey, Clifford, Dakin, & Mareschal, ; Florey, Dakin, Clifford, & Mareschal, ). Flexible weighting across changing circumstances makes sense, but how variable might this process be on an individual basis?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceiving gaze from head and eye rotations: An integrative challenge for children and adults

Mihalache

Feng

Askari

et al. 2019

Developmental Science

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Gaze is an emergent visual feature. A person's gaze direction is perceived not just based on the rotation of their eyes, but also their head. At least among adults, this integrative process appears to be flexible such that one feature can be weighted more heavily than the other depending on the circumstances. Yet it is unclear how this weighting might vary across individuals or across development. When children engage emergent gaze, do they prioritize cues from the head and eyes similarly to adults? Is the perception of gaze among individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) emergent, or is it reliant on a single feature? Sixty adults (M = 29.86 years‐of‐age), thirty‐seven typically developing children and adolescents (M = 9.3 years‐of‐age; range = 7–15), and eighteen children with ASD (M = 9.72 years‐of‐age; range = 7–15) viewed faces with leftward, rightward, or direct head rotations in conjunction with leftward or rightward pupil rotations, and then indicated whether the face was looking leftward or rightward. All individuals, across development and ASD status, used head rotation to infer gaze direction, albeit with some individual differences. However, the use of pupil rotation was heavily dependent on age. Finally, children with ASD used pupil rotation significantly less than typically developing (TD) children when inferring gaze direction, even after accounting for age. Our approach provides a novel framework for understanding individual and group differences in gaze as it is actually perceived—as an emergent feature. Furthermore, this study begins to address an important gap in ASD literature, taking the first look at emergent gaze perception in this population.

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Peripheral processing of gaze.

Cited by 24 publications

References 39 publications

The center of attention: Metamers, sensitivity, and bias in the emergent perception of gaze

The center of attention: Metamers, sensitivity, and bias in the emergent perception of gaze

Spatial limitations in averaging social cues

Perceiving gaze from head and eye rotations: An integrative challenge for children and adults

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