Attentional bias to direct gaze in a dot-probe paradigm.
Previous research has suggested that a singly presented facial stimulus having a direct gaze holds spatial attention. This study examined whether facial stimulus having a direct gaze can also capture spatial attention in a relative dot-probe paradigm (facial stimulus having a direct gaze was presented concurrently with that having an averted gaze). The results showed that participants oriented their spatial attention to a facial stimulus having a direct gaze rather than to that with an averted gaze. This attentional bias depended on gaze-perception mechanisms as observed in the lack of attentional bias to a direct gaze from unnatural-looking eyes (i.e., white pupil/iris and black sclera). These findings raise the possibility that the attentional effect implicated in the perception of a direct gaze is induced regardless of the stimulus context.
Department of Psychology, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan. miyazaki-yuki@ed.tmu.ac.jp
Yuki
Y
Miyazaki
Hiromi
H
Wake
Shigeru
S
Ichihara
Tenji
T
Wake
D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D005145:Face; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D011930:Reaction Time; D013028:Space Perception