Evaluating the influence of a fixated object’s spatio-temporal properties on gaze control

Abstract

Despite recent progress in understanding the factors that determine where an observer will eventually look in a scene, we know very little about what determines how an observer decides where he or she will look next. We investigated the potential roles of object-level representations in the direction of subsequent shifts of gaze. In five experiments, we considered whether a fixated object’s spatial orientation, implied motion, and perceived animacy affect gaze direction when shifting overt attention to another object. Eye movements directed away from a fixated object were biased in the direction it faced. This effect was not modified by implying a particular direction of inanimate or animate motion. Together, these results suggest that decisions regarding where one should look next are in part determined by the spatial, but not by the implied temporal, properties of the object at the current locus of fixation.