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Abstract:
Abstract: Previous studies of attentional orienting to gaze
direction have presented a gazing face as a nonpredictive cue, and
then a single sudden onset in the periphery as the target. The
standard finding is shorter response time (RT) for a target at the
gazed-at location compared to the nongazed-at location, and no
reversal of this cuing effect at longer cue-to-target stimulus
onset asynchronies (SOAs). The standard interpretation of these
findings has been that (1) gaze direction causes a shift of spatial
attention, (2) this orienting is reflexive, and (3) the attentional
shift is not followed by inhibition of return at the cued location.
In the present study, we tested these claims by presenting targets
with or without distractors, by manipulating the predictive value
of gaze direction, and by dissociating the location that was gazed
at from the location that was predicted. Our results converge on
the conclusion that gaze direction produces an attentional shift
that is reflexive in nature, and that it does not produce
inhibition of return.
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