Abstract

An experiment aimed at investigating the effects of gaze perception on the reflexive orienting of an observer's attention was carried out on 14 adults (8M and 6F). The perception of gaze direction was manipulated by reversing the polarity of contrast between the sclera and the iris (i.e. the sclera darker than the iris). Static and dynamic eye stimuli were also used. The results showed that overall the negative contrast polarity effect cancelled out the advantage of gaze cueing found for positive contrast polarity stimuli (i.e. the iris darker than the sclera). Motion has little role on the contrast polarity effect. This data reveals a direct link between the perception of gaze direction and joint attention.