The attractiveness of face cues does not modulate the gaze cuing effect

The gaze cuing effect refers to the finding that participants are faster to respond to a stimulus preceded by a face gazing towards the stimulus location compared to when a stimulus is preceded by a face gazing away from the stimulus location. This effect is found even when the gaze direction is not...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inVisual cognition Vol. 31; no. 9; pp. 655 - 670
Main Authors Hutcheon, Thomas G., McMahon, Hominy, Retzloff, Clara, Samat, Alua, Tinker, Calum
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hove Routledge 21.10.2023
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Attraction
Face
gaze cueing effect
social cognition
Spatial attention
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The gaze cuing effect refers to the finding that participants are faster to respond to a stimulus preceded by a face gazing towards the stimulus location compared to when a stimulus is preceded by a face gazing away from the stimulus location. This effect is found even when the gaze direction is not informative of the upcoming stimulus location, suggesting the operation of a fast, reflexive process that draws attention. However, accumulating evidence suggests that this gaze cuing effect is modulated by additional contextual features including characteristics of the face stimulus. In the current set of experiments, we sought to test whether the attractiveness of the face cue is one such factor. Across three experiments, we found no evidence that attractiveness impacts the gaze cuing effect. We interpret these findings to mean that perceived attractiveness is not a contextual feature that modulates the impact of gaze on spatial attention.
ISSN:1350-6285
1464-0716
DOI:10.1080/13506285.2024.2335585