The effects of eye gaze and facial expressions on the visual attention for emotional stimuli

Abstract

In two experiments employing a visual orientation task, the authors investigate the interaction between another person's gaze direction and emotional expression on visual attention. Participants viewed both smiling and frowning schematic faces, with gazes directed either ahead, to the left, or to the right. They subsequently responded to target slides with emotional valences that appeared after gaze onset. Gaze cue validity and expression-target congruity were manipulated. In Experiment 1 participants (n = 15) were asked to localize the targets. The results indicated a clear spatial cuing effect due to gaze direction but no effects for facial expression. In Experiment 2 the task for the participants (n = 18) was to evaluate the valence of the target slides. The results indicated a significant interaction between gaze and expression, suggesting that expression-target congruity effects are modulated by gaze cue validity. Some theoretical implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)