PSY 305

Assignment 2
Summary

Submitted by - Nishchay Sandhu

Roll number - 2019373

Introduction:
The human face is rich in information that can influence the allocation of attention, mainly
through gaze direction and facial expressions. Gaze direction, which refers to the orientation of
the eyes and head, can act as a cue to draw attention toward a specific location. On the other
hand, facial expressions, such as happiness or fear, can provide emotional cues that also affect
attentional processes. However, more research has yet to investigate how the effect of gaze
direction and emotional expression together impact the process of cueing spatial attention. This
study aims to examine this phenomenon and explore the complex interplay between these cues.

Methods:
Experiment 1
The experiment involved 28 participants (Psychology undergraduates) who were presented with
pictures of faces displaying various combinations of gaze direction (left or right) and emotional
expressions (happy, disgusted, afraid, or neutral). Using Valence or arousal, 288 words were
chosen to display, half of which were positive and the other negative. The participants were
shown four sets of blocks consisting of combinations of facial expressions (Happy, neutral, fear,
disgust), the target position of the word (left or right), and gaze direction (left or right). The
targets were required to press two keys representing the expression positive or negative. Then the
participants were instructed to respond as quickly as possible to a target stimulus on either the
same side or to the opposite side of the face as the gaze direction or spatial location. The
experiment was meant to give the participants an evaluative goal in contrast with experiment 2,
which had a perceptual plan instead of the motivational one. The response time and accuracy of
the participants were recorded and analyzed.
Results:
The results showed that when the participants responded on the basis of target valence, spatial
attention was affected by both facial expression and gaze direction in the case of negative facial
expressions.
The results also showed that when the target stimulus appeared on the same side as the gaze
direction, the participants were faster to respond, regardless of the emotional expression
displayed by the face. However, when the stimulus appeared on the opposite side of the face, the
participants were faster to respond when the face displayed a happy expression compared to a
fearful or neutral expression. There were slower and longer responses for negative facial
expressions and negative target words.
Adding to that, when the target face showed a negative expression like fear or disgust, it caused
comparatively higher spatial cueing effects as compared to when the target face showed a neutral
or happy expression. This was apparent only when an intentional motivational goal was attached
to the experiment. The study showed participants had slower responses when there was an
evaluative task and higher responses when there was a perceptual task.
These findings suggest that the combination of gaze direction and emotional expression has a
significant impact on the process of cueing spatial attention.

Discussion:
The results of this study suggest that gaze direction and emotional expression together can
influence attentional processes in a complex manner. When gaze direction and emotional
expression are congruent, attention is drawn toward the direction of the gaze. However, when the
cues are incongruent, the emotional expression can override the gaze direction and direct
attention toward the opposite side. This finding highlights the importance of considering multiple
cues in attention studies and suggests that emotional expression can play a crucial role in guiding
attention.
There can be a discussion over why the responses of the participants were higher when the facial
expression was happy and why the responses were slower when the facial expressions were
negative (fear or disgust). One of the potential reasons for this argued that generally, one could
easily evaluate a happy face with the presence of just a smile, which only requires a little spatial
attention as it is distinctive and convincing. On the other hand, slower responses for negative
faces may be because they need different overlapping features in different areas of the face,
suggesting there can be many facial expressions concluding the expression of a negative face,
which may require more extended processing of the face. The study also indicated that positive
faces were more "approaching" than negative ones, which could be taken into consideration for
the explanation of the response times of the two.

Further discussions can be conducted based on the debate on why gaze direction and facial
expression affect attentional behavior not as much for the positive expressions as they do for the
negative ones.

My Take:
One limitation of this study is the relatively small sample size used in the experiment, which may
limit the generalizability of the findings. Additionally, the study only used four emotional
expressions (happy, fear, disgust, and neutral), which may not be sufficient to evaluate the full
range of emotions that can influence attentional processes. Future studies could investigate this
phenomenon with a larger and more diverse sample size and explore how other emotional
expressions might impact attentional processes.

Overall, the results of this study provide insights into how social cues can guide attention and
how emotional expression can modulate the impact of gaze direction. Additionally, the results of
this study provide a framework for understanding how the brain processes and integrates
multiple sources of information to guide attention. Future research can build on these findings to
explore how other social cues, such as body language or vocal intonation, might interact with
gaze direction and emotional expression to influence attentional processes.

References:
Pecchinenda, Anna & Pes, Manuela & Ferlazzo, Fabio & Zoccolotti, Pierluigi. (2008). The
Combined Effect of Gaze Direction and Facial Expression on Cueing Spatial Attention. Emotion
(Washington, D.C.). 8. 628-34. 10.1037/a0013437.