Abstract
In a typical Simon task, the (irrelevant) spatial position of the stimulus interferes with the processing of the salient characteristic (e.g., color). We used the Simon effect to investigate the automatic processing of gaze cues. We show that a simple drawing of schematic eyes automatically generates a spatially defined code of gaze direction. Although completely irrelevant to the task, direction of gaze influenced reaction times in a spatially selective two-choice discrimination based on eye color. Moreover, in one experiment employing an orthogonal manipulation of stimulus position and gaze direction, we found that coding of gaze direction is independent of stimulus spatial coding. Our finding of a “gazedirection Simon effect” is congruent with the hypothesis that gaze direction is coded by a specialized mechanism.
Article PDF
References
Allison, T., Puce, A., &McCarthy, G. (2000). Social perception from visual cues: Role of the STS region.Trends in Cognitive Sciences,4, 267–278.
Argyle, M., &Cook, M. (1976).Gaze and mutual gaze. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Baron-Cohen, S. (1994). How to build a baby that can read minds: Cognitive mechanisms in mindreading.Current Psychology of Cognition,13, 513–552.
Batki, A., Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Connellan, J., &Ahluwalia, J. (2000). Is there an innate gaze module? Evidence from human neonates.Infant Behavior & Development,23, 223–229.
Bruce, C., Desimone, R., &Gross, C. G. (1981). Visual properties of neurones in a polysensory area in the superior temporal sulcus of the macaque.Journal of Neurophysiology,46, 369–384.
Butterworth, G., &Jarrett, N. (1991). What minds have in common is space: Spatial mechanisms serving joint visual attention in infancy.British Journal of Developmental Psychology,9, 55–72.
Corbetta, M., Shulman, G., Miezin, F., &Peterson, S. (1995). Superior parietal cortex activation during spatial attention shifts and visual feature conjunction.Science,270, 802–805.
Driver, J., Davis, G., Kidd, P., Maxwell, E., Ricciardelli, P., &Baron-Cohen, S. (1999). Gaze perception triggers visuospatial orienting by adults in a reflexive manner.Visual Cognition,6, 509–540.
Friesen, C. K., &Kingstone, A. (1998). The eyes have it! Reflexive orienting is triggered by nonpredictive gaze.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,5, 490–495.
Hietanen, J. K. (1999). Does your gaze direction and head orientation shift my visual attention?NeuroReport,10, 3443–3447.
Hoffman, E.A., &Haxby, J. V. (2000). Distinct representations of eye gaze and identity in the distributed human neural system for face perception.Nature Neuroscience,3, 80–84.
Hommel, B., Pratt, J., Colzato, L., &Godijn, R. (2001). Symbolic control of visual attention.Psychological Science,12, 360–365.
Hood, B. M., Willen, J. D., &Driver, J. (1998). Adult’s eyes trigger shifts of visual attention in human infants.Psychological Science,9, 53–56.
Kingstone, A., Friesen, C. K., &Gazzaniga, M. S. (2000). Reflexive joint attention depends on lateralized cortical connections.Psychological Science,11, 159–166.
Langton, S. R. H. (2000). The mutual influence of gaze and head orientation in the analysis of social attention direction.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,53A, 825–845.
Langton, S. R.H., &Bruce, V. (2000). You must see the point: Automatic processing of cues to the direction of social attention.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,26, 747–757.
Langton, S.R. H., O’Malley, C., &Bruce, V. (1996). Actions speak no louder than words: Symmetrical cross-modal interference effects in the processing of verbal and gestural information.Journal of Ex-perimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,22, 1357–1375.
Langton, S.R.H., Watt, R. J., &Bruce, V. (2000). Do the eyes have it? Cues to the direction of social attention.Trends in Cognitive Sciences,4, 50–59.
Lu, C. H., &Proctor, R. W. (1995). The influence of irrelevant location information on performance: A review of the Simon and spatial Stroop effects.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,2, 174–207.
Masaki, H., Takasawa, N., &Yamazaki, K. (2000). An electrophysiological study of the locus of the interference effect in a stimulus-response compatibility paradigm.Psychophysiology,37, 464–472.
Maurer, D. (1985). Infant’s perception of facedness. In T. Field & M. Fox (Eds.),Social perception in infants (pp. 77–100). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Perrett, D. I., Smith, P. A. J., Potter, D. D., Mistlin, A. J., Head, A. S., Milner, A. D., &Jeeves, M. A. (1985). Visual cells in the temporal cortex sensitive to face view and gaze direction.Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Series B,223, 293–317.
Posner, M. I. (1980). Orienting of attention.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,32, 3–25.
Simon, J. R., &Craft, J. L. (1970). Effects of an irrelevant auditory stimulus on visual choice reaction time.Journal of Experimental Psychology,86, 272–274.
Sternberg, S. (1969). The discovery of processing stages: Extensions of Donders’s method.Acta Psychologica,30, 276–315.
Tagliabue, M., Zorzi, M., Umiltà, C., &Bassignani, F. (2000). The role of LTM links and STM links in the Simon effect.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,26, 648–670.
Tipples, J. (2002). Eye gaze is not unique: Automatic orienting in response to uninformative arrows.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,9, 314–318.
Umiltà, C., &Nicoletti, R. (1990). Spatial S-R compatibility. In R.W. Proctor & T. G. Reeve (Eds.),Stimulus-response compatibility: An integrated perspective (pp. 89–116). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Valenza, E., Simion, F., Macchi Cassia, V., &Umiltà, C. (1996). Face preference at birth.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,22, 892–903.
Vecera, S. P., &Johnson, M. H. (1995). Gaze detection and the cortical processing of faces: Evidence from infants and adults.Visual Cognition,2, 59–87.
Wicker, B., Michel, F., Henaff, M.-A., &Decety, J. (1998). Brain regions involved in the perception of gaze: A PET study.NeuroImage,8, 221–227.
Zorzi, M., &Umiltà, C. (1995). A computational model of the Simon effect.Psychological Research,58, 193–205.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This work was supported by a McDonnell-Pew Cognitive Neuroscience Program grant to M.Z. and C.U. and by grants from the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche and the Ministero della Università e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica to C. U. We thank Jari Hietanen, Steve Langton, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Part of this work was presented at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, San Francisco, April 2000.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zorzi, M., Mapelli, D., Rusconi, E. et al. Automatic spatial coding of perceived gaze direction is revealed by the Simon effect. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 10, 423–429 (2003). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196501
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196501