Social attention orienting integrates visual information from head and body orientation.
Subjects were asked to detect visual, laterally presented reaction signals preceded by head-body cue stimuli in a spatial cueing task. A head rotated towards the reaction signal combined with a front view of a body resulted in shorter reaction times in comparison to the front view of a head and body. In contrast, a cue showing the head and body rotated towards the reaction signal did not result in such a facilitation in reaction times. The results suggest that the brain mechanisms involved in social attention orienting integrate ventrally processed visual information from the head and body orientation. A cue signaling that the other person, in his or her frame of reference, has an averted attention direction shifts the observer's own attention in the same direction.
Human Information Processing Laboratory, Department of Psychology, FIN-33014 University of Tampere, Finland. jari.hietanen@uta.fi
Jari K
JK
Hietanen
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003071:Cognition; D003463:Cues; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D011930:Reaction Time; D012938:Social Perception; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis