Deficiency of object-based attention specific to the gaze cue is independent of top-down attentional strategies. (May 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Eito, Hirokazu; Wakabayashi, Akio
• Is Part Of: Perception. Volume 52:Number 5(2023)
• Page Start: 330
• Page End: 344
• Publication Date: 2023-05
• Subjects: gaze-cueing effect -- gaze perception -- object-based attention -- spatial cueing -- visual attention; Perception -- Periodicals; Perception -- Periodicals; Perception; Periodicals; 153.705
• DOI: 10.1177/03010066231168570
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0301-0066

Abstract

This study investigated whether modes of attentional selection (location-based or object-based) are modulated by the cue type, specifically social cues such as eye gaze and pointing fingers, or by a non-social cue, such as an arrow. Earlier studies have demonstrated that the object-based attention effect was found only with arrow cues when presenting a spatial cue at either end of a rectangle: gaze cues did not yield object-based facilitation. We examined whether this deficiency of object-based attention is generalized to social cues such as pointing fingers. We measured the reaction times to the target at each cued location, an opposite side of a cued location in the same object, or the location in a different object equidistant from the cued location for each cue. Results indicated that only the gaze cue weakened the object-based attention effect, even under the condition of participants' voluntary extension of their attentional focus. The pointing cue induced sufficient object-based facilitation, as did the arrow cue. These results suggest that the deficiency of object-based attention was observed only for the gaze cue, and that it would be caused by a factor that is unique to the gaze cue, which narrows the attentional focus.