Influence of gaze direction on face recognition: A sensitive effect

Abstract

This study was aimed at determining the conditions in which eye-contact may improve recognition memory for faces. Different stimuli and procedures were tested in four experiments. The effect of gaze direction on memory was found when a simple "yes-no" recognition task was used but not when the recognition task was more complex (e.g., including "Remember-Know" judgements, cf. Experiment 2, or confidence ratings, cf. Experiment 4). Moreover, even when a "yes-no" recognition paradigm was used, the effect occurred with one series of stimuli (cf. Experiment 1) but not with another one (cf. Experiment 3). The difficulty to produce the positive effect of gaze direction on memory is discussed.