RESUMEN
Recent research has revealed enhanced autonomic and subjective responses to eye contact only when perceiving another live person. However, these enhanced responses to eye contact are abolished if the viewer believes that the other person is not able to look back at the viewer. We purported to investigate whether this "genuine" eye contact effect can be reproduced with pre-recorded videos of stimulus persons. Autonomic responses, gaze behavior, and subjective self-assessments were measured while participants viewed pre-recorded video persons with direct or averted gaze, imagined that the video person was real, and mentalized that the person could see them or not. Pre-recorded videos did not evoke similar physiological or subjective eye contact effect as previously observed with live persons, not even when the participants were mentalizing being seen by the person. Gaze tracking results showed, however, increased attention allocation to faces with direct gaze compared to averted gaze directions. The results suggest that elicitation of the physiological arousal in response to genuine eye contact seems to require spontaneous experience of seeing and of being seen by another individual.
Asunto(s)
Nivel de Alerta/fisiología , Sistema Nervioso Autónomo/fisiología , Reconocimiento Facial/fisiología , Fijación Ocular/fisiología , Respuesta Galvánica de la Piel/fisiología , Percepción Social , Teoría de la Mente/fisiología , Adulto , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
We investigated performance in a visuospatial discrimination task and selective attention task (Stroop task) while a live person's direct or averted gaze was presented as a task-irrelevant contextual stimulus. Based on previous research, we expected that response times to peripherally presented targets (Experiment 1) and to the Stroop stimuli (Experiment 2) would be longer in the context of direct versus averted gaze. Contrary to our expectations, the direct gaze context resulted in faster discrimination of visual targets and faster performance in the Stroop task compared with the averted gaze context. We propose that the observed results are explained by enhanced arousal elicited by genuine eye contact. (PsycINFO Database Record
Asunto(s)
Atención/fisiología , Fijación Ocular/fisiología , Percepción Espacial/fisiología , Percepción Visual/fisiología , Adulto , Nivel de Alerta/fisiología , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Tiempo de Reacción/fisiología , Test de Stroop , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
Previous research has shown that physiological arousal and attentional responses to eye contact are modulated by one's knowledge of whether they are seen by another person. Recently it was shown that this 'eye contact effect' can be elicited without seeing another person's eyes at all. We aimed to investigate whether the eye contact effect is actually triggered by the mere knowledge of being seen by another individual, i.e. even in a condition when the perceiver does not see the other person at all. We measured experienced self-awareness and both autonomic and brain activity responses while participants were facing another person (a model) sitting behind a window. We manipulated the visibility of the model and the participants' belief of whether or not the model could see them. When participants did not see the model but believed they were seen by the model, physiological responses were attenuated in comparison to when both parties saw each other. However, self-assessed public self-awareness was not attenuated in this condition. Thus, two requirements must be met for physiological responses to occur in response to eye contact: an experience of being seen by another individual and an experience of seeing the other individual.
Asunto(s)
Ojo , Relaciones Interpersonales , Concienciación , Electroencefalografía , Potenciales Evocados/fisiología , Femenino , Fijación Ocular , Respuesta Galvánica de la Piel/fisiología , Frecuencia Cardíaca/fisiología , Humanos , Masculino , Modelos Psicológicos , Autoimagen , Adulto JovenRESUMEN
We investigated whether eye contact is aversive and negatively arousing for adolescents with social anxiety disorder (SAD). Participants were 17 adolescents with clinically diagnosed SAD and 17 age- and sex-matched controls. While participants viewed the stimuli, a real person with either direct gaze (eye contact), averted gaze, or closed eyes, we measured autonomic arousal (skin conductance responses) and electroencephalographic indices of approach-avoidance-motivation. Additionally, preferred viewing times, self-assessed arousal, valence, and situational self-awareness were measured. We found indications of enhanced autonomic and self-evaluated arousal, attenuated relative left-sided frontal cortical activity (associated with approach-motivation), and more negatively valenced self-evaluated feelings in adolescents with SAD compared to controls when viewing a face making eye contact. The behavioral measures and self-assessments were consistent with the physiological results. The results provide multifaceted evidence that eye contact with another person is an aversive and highly arousing situation for adolescents with SAD.
Asunto(s)
Nivel de Alerta/fisiología , Electroencefalografía/métodos , Emociones/fisiología , Reconocimiento Facial/fisiología , Respuesta Galvánica de la Piel/fisiología , Trastornos Fóbicos/fisiopatología , Percepción Social , Adolescente , Femenino , Humanos , MasculinoRESUMEN
Recent studies have shown enhanced brain and autonomic responses to seeing a face with a direct gaze. Interestingly, greater responses to eye contact vs. averted gaze have been observed when showing "live" faces as stimuli but not when showing pictures of faces on a computer screen. In this study, we provide unequivocal evidence that the differential responses observed in the "live" condition are dependent on the observer's mental attributions. Results from two experiments showed that eye contact resulted in greater autonomic and brain responses compared to averted gaze if a participant believed that the stimulus person sitting on the other side of an electronic shutter was able to see him or her through the shutter. Gaze direction had no effects if participants believed that the transparency from their side was blocked. The results suggest that mental attributions exert a powerful modulation on the processing of socially relevant sensory information.