Social Attention

Question 1

Social attention

Answer 1

Attending to social information in our environment

Predisposed to look to social information in our environment

Attending to other people

Attend to body parts that give information regarding interactions

Question 2

Importance of social cues

Answer 2

Interacting with other people is crucial to development

Social cues aid in learning key social skills

Question 3

Babies divert attention to eyes

Answer 3

Can follow gaze by 3 months

Orient their attention to location of gaze 12 months

Question 4

Sensitivity to gaze in infants

Farroni et al (2002)

Answer 4

Very sensitive to gaze

Clear preference to look at faces gazing at them

Looked for significantly longer at faces with direct gaze at them

Question 5

King stone

Answer 5

Human, humanoid or monster

Attend significantly more to eye regions eg look at hands in monsters

Question 6

Different morphology of eyes

Answer 6

White in human eyes-> evolved to communicate

Eyes both receive and send information

Gives insight into what partners are paying attention to and helps us understand thought processes

Question 7

Gaze perception

Driver

Answer 7

Normal polarity vs reversed polarity

Difficult to guess which way eye is gazing when reversed polarity

Specific system attuned to specific morphology of our eye

Recognise direction of gaze by which way black bit is looking

Question 8

fMRI direct vs averted gaze

Answer 8

View portraits of historical figures with either direct or averted gaze

Greater activation in fusiform gurus

Eye tracking data- greater attention to eyes and mouth with direct gaze

Question 9

Freeth

Answer 9

Live vs video, direct vs averted

Attended most of attention to interviewer in live more so than video

Avert gaze to answer

Reduce cognitive load by averting gaze

Averted gaze indicated we haven’t finished speaking

Direct gaze indicates listening to social partner

Question 10

Gaze cueing

Answer 10

When we see someone move their gaze, we move our own gaze so that we are both looking in the same location

Question 11

Curing paradigms

Posner (1980)

Answer 11

Is the target in the left or the right?

Adapted to investigate gaze curing

Fixation if eyes, cues of eyes moving, then target

Quicker to find a target when given a cue

Significantly faster to detect target when same location as gaze cue (valid)
Slower to detect target when in different location (invalid)

Question 12

Real world implications

Answer 12

Direct our attention to important information within our environment

Helps us plan our own actions

Gives insight into other people’s intentions

Question 13

Social status gates social attention

Galfano

Answer 13

Ppts shown cvs and photographs

High or low social status

Photographs then used as stimuli in gaze cueing task

Larger gaze cueing effect for those of Hugh status

Question 14

Gaze allocation in lab vs natural

King stone

Answer 14

Normal condition: go to coffee shop
Then view their journey on computer

Pedestrians far away slightly more likely to be fixated on in real life

Significantly less likely to look at pedestrian when near in real life vs video

Question 15

Autism spectrum

Kiln

Answer 15

Less attention to eyes more to mouths

Autistic adults look less at faces when people look directly at them

Don’t show spontaneous gaze cueing

Question 16

Autistic traits and social context

King stone

Answer 16

No relationship between autistic traits and attention to the interviewer

Individuals with higher amounts of autistic traits looked less at the interviewer in the direct eye contact condition

Question 17

Social attention in prosopagnosia

Answer 17

No GC effect present at shorter duration when viewing full face

GC effect at short duration when eyes only