Subjects: Psychology >> Experimental Psychology submitted time 2023-08-24
Abstract： The babyface effect plays an important role in human social cognitive responses to others. It has been shown that the babyface effect coexists with gender, context, and other factors in trait inferences, and together they influence people's perceptions of and interactions with others. In addition, the eyeTUNE framework proposes the key hypothesis that the moderating role of social factors on gaze cueing effects (GCE) further depends on contextual factors. However, as an important information in social interactions, whether and how babyface co-influence social attention with other factors needs to be further explored. Based on the existing studies, we have two experimental hypotheses. First, we hypothesized that female with babyfaces and male with mature faces would elicit greater GCE. Second, we hypothesized that, consistent with the eyeTUNE framework, the babyface effect disappears or diminishes in a non-comparative context.
In the current study, we used attentional cueing paradigm to examine the specific manifestations of the babyface effect in social attention by manipulating different contextual factors. Experiment 1 presented the various types of stimuli in the same block in a comparative context, using a 2 (participant gender: male, female) × 2 (face gender: male, female) × 2 (face type: babyface, mature face) × 2 (gaze cue validity: valid, invalid) mixed experimental design (with participant gender as a between-participants variable) to explore how face type interacts with gender to affect social attention. To investigate whether babyfaces would still have an effect on the GCE when there was no comparative context between babyface and mature face. Experiment 2 presented the four conditions (female babyface, female mature face, male babyface, and male mature face) in a separate block.
The results of Experiment 1 (comparative context) found that gaze cueing effects were moderated by face type and face gender. Specifically, a larger gaze cueing effect was discovered when the cue appeared on the babyfaces compared to the mature faces under female face condition; whereas under male face condition, babyfaces induced smaller gaze cueing effects than mature faces. However, in Experiment 2 (non-comparative context), the pattern of results differed from Experiment 1 in that the gaze cueing effect was no longer moderated by the role of or interaction between face type and face gender, but only by participant gender. A combined comparison of the data from Experiments 1 and 2 revealed statistically significant differences between the patterns under the two contextual factors.
In summary, the present study extends the existing literature in several ways. First, it explores for the first time the role of babyface in GCE under different facial gender. Second, it also reveals the moderating role of contextual factor in individuals' social attentional processing with babyface. The above results illustrate that although male and female babyfaces can cause attentional bias in social interaction, it only exists in the comparative context with mature faces, but not in the non-comparative context. The results of this study further support the theoretical view of the eyeTUNE framework that the social modulation of the gaze cueing effect critically dependents on situational factors.
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Subjects: Psychology >> Experimental Psychology submitted time 2022-01-31
Abstract：
Eye contact plays an important role in social interaction and can capture and hold attention. Previous studies have shown that eye contact can guide attentional allocation. However, a face with direct or averted gaze is a special object containing social information. The object’s guidance for attentional allocation is called object-based attention, in which items in the cued object are processed more preferentially than items in the un-cued object. It is still unclear how eye contact interacts with objects in guiding attentional allocation. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of eye contact and the cognitive mechanism of object-based attention.
We conducted three experiments using the two-rectangle paradigm and objects with different gaze directions. In Experiment 1, faces were used as stimulus and to investigate whether and how eye contact interacted with face to guide attentional allocation. At the beginning of each trial, the fixation cross and two objects originally were displayed for 1000 ms on a screen. Then, a cue appeared randomly at any of the four ends of the two objects for 100 ms. After 0, 200, or 500 ms of inter-stimulus, the target appeared until the participant pressed the “M” key or remained on screen for 1,500 ms. A black screen was then presented for 500 ms after each trial. During the experiment, the participants were asked to locate targets by pressing “M” as quickly as possible. We ruled out the influence of low-level features by using contrast reversed faces in Experiment 2. In Experiment 3, cups overlaid with eyes were used to explore whether the effect of eye contact still existed on real objects.
The results of Experiment 1 revealed that there was a significant interaction between gaze directions, cue position, and stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). Specifically, a larger object-based effect was discovered when the cue appeared on the direct-gaze face compared to the averted-gaze face under 300-ms SOA; however, there was no significant difference between them under 100- and 600-ms SOA. Further analysis showed that the differences in object-based effect occurred because the participants reacted more quickly to the target in direct gaze than in averted gaze under the invalid same-object condition, which indicated that direct gaze could capture attention and cause a larger object-based effect. The difference in object-based effect between direct and averted gaze at 300-ms SOA disappeared in Experiment 2. The results of Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiment 1 and further demonstrated that the influence of eye contact on object-based attention can extend to real objects.
In conclusion, the present study extends the extant literature in several dimensions. First, it provides the first evidence, to the best of our knowledge, that eye contact interacts with objects, including faces and cups, in guiding attentional allocation. The top-down processing of eye contact facilitates the processing of objects under an invalid same-object location, which leads to greater object-based attention and supports the enhancement spreading theory. Second, it also reveals that the influence of eye contact on object-based attention is regulated by SOA.
Subjects: Psychology >> Experimental Psychology submitted time 2022-01-31
Abstract： <p>Eye contact plays an important role in social interaction and can capture and hold attention. Previous studies have shown that eye contact can guide attentional allocation. However, a face with direct or averted gaze is a special object containing social information. The object’s guidance for attentional allocation is called object-based attention, in which items in the cued object are processed more preferentially than items in the un-cued object. It is still unclear how eye contact interacts with objects in guiding attentional allocation. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the impact of eye contact and the cognitive mechanism of object-based attention.</p><p>We conducted three experiments using the two-rectangle paradigm and objects with different gaze directions. In Experiment 1, faces were used as stimulus and to investigate whether and how eye contact interacted with face to guide attentional allocation. At the beginning of each trial, the fixation cross and two objects originally were displayed for 1000 ms on a screen. Then, a cue appeared randomly at any of the four ends of the two objects for 100 ms. After 0, 200, or 500 ms of inter-stimulus, the target appeared until the participant pressed the “M” key or remained on screen for 1,500 ms. A black screen was then presented for 500 ms after each trial. During the experiment, the participants were asked to locate targets by pressing “M” as quickly as possible. We ruled out the influence of low-level features by using contrast reversed faces in Experiment 2. In Experiment 3, cups overlaid with eyes were used to explore whether the effect of eye contact still existed on real objects.</p><p>The results of Experiment 1 revealed that there was a significant interaction between gaze directions, cue position, and stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). Specifically, a larger object-based effect was discovered when the cue appeared on the direct-gaze face compared to the averted-gaze face under 300-ms SOA; however, there was no significant difference between them under 100- and 600-ms SOA. Further analysis showed that the differences in object-based effect occurred because the participants reacted more quickly to the target in direct gaze than in averted gaze under the invalid same-object condition, which indicated that direct gaze could capture attention and cause a larger object-based effect. The difference in object-based effect between direct and averted gaze at 300-ms SOA disappeared in Experiment 2. The results of Experiment 3 replicated the results of Experiment 1 and further demonstrated that the influence of eye contact on object-based attention can extend to real objects.</p><p>In conclusion, the present study extends the extant literature in several dimensions. First, it provides the first evidence, to the best of our knowledge, that eye contact interacts with objects, including faces and cups, in guiding attentional allocation. The top-down processing of eye contact facilitates the processing of objects under an invalid same-object location, which leads to greater object-based attention and supports the enhancement spreading theory. Second, it also reveals that the influence of eye contact on object-based attention is regulated by SOA.</p><p>"</p>
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