TY - JOUR

T1 - Eyes only? Perceiving eye contact is neither sufficient nor necessary for attentional capture by face direction

AU - Böckler, Anne

AU - van der Wel, Robrecht P.R.D.

AU - Welsh, Timothy N.

N1 - Funding Information: This research was supported by grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation.

PY - 2015/9

Y1 - 2015/9

N2 - Direct eye contact and motion onset both constitute powerful cues that capture attention. Recent research suggests that (social) gaze and (non-social) motion onset influence information processing in parallel, even when combined as sudden onset direct gaze cues (i.e., faces suddenly establishing eye contact). The present study investigated the role of eye visibility for attention capture by these sudden onset face cues. To this end, face direction was manipulated (away or towards onlooker) while faces had closed eyes (eliminating visibility of eyes, Experiment 1), wore sunglasses (eliminating visible eyes, but allowing for the expectation of eyes to be open, Experiment 2), and were inverted with visible eyes (disrupting the integration of eyes and faces, Experiment 3). Participants classified targets appearing on one of four faces. Initially, two faces were oriented towards participants and two faces were oriented away from participants. Simultaneous to target presentation, one averted face became directed and one directed face became averted. Attention capture by face direction (i.e., facilitation for faces directed towards participants) was absent when eyes were closed, but present when faces wore sunglasses. Sudden onset direct faces can, hence, induce attentional capture, even when lacking eye cues. Inverted faces, by contrast, did not elicit attentional capture. Thus, when eyes cannot be integrated into a holistic face representation they are not sufficient to capture attention. Overall, the results suggest that visibility of eyes is neither necessary nor sufficient for the sudden direct face effect.

AB - Direct eye contact and motion onset both constitute powerful cues that capture attention. Recent research suggests that (social) gaze and (non-social) motion onset influence information processing in parallel, even when combined as sudden onset direct gaze cues (i.e., faces suddenly establishing eye contact). The present study investigated the role of eye visibility for attention capture by these sudden onset face cues. To this end, face direction was manipulated (away or towards onlooker) while faces had closed eyes (eliminating visibility of eyes, Experiment 1), wore sunglasses (eliminating visible eyes, but allowing for the expectation of eyes to be open, Experiment 2), and were inverted with visible eyes (disrupting the integration of eyes and faces, Experiment 3). Participants classified targets appearing on one of four faces. Initially, two faces were oriented towards participants and two faces were oriented away from participants. Simultaneous to target presentation, one averted face became directed and one directed face became averted. Attention capture by face direction (i.e., facilitation for faces directed towards participants) was absent when eyes were closed, but present when faces wore sunglasses. Sudden onset direct faces can, hence, induce attentional capture, even when lacking eye cues. Inverted faces, by contrast, did not elicit attentional capture. Thus, when eyes cannot be integrated into a holistic face representation they are not sufficient to capture attention. Overall, the results suggest that visibility of eyes is neither necessary nor sufficient for the sudden direct face effect.

KW - Attention capture

KW - Direct gaze

KW - Social cognition

KW - Social cues

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84938261944&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.actpsy.2015.07.009

DO - 10.1016/j.actpsy.2015.07.009

M3 - Article

C2 - 26245915

AN - SCOPUS:84938261944

VL - 160

SP - 134

EP - 140

JO - Acta psychologica

JF - Acta psychologica

SN - 0001-6918

ER -