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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 17, 2026

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

Published on: May 15, 2019

Reflexive orienting to gaze is not luminance dependent.

Kaitlin E W Laidlaw¹, Jay Pratt

¹Psychology Department, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T1Z4, Canada. klaidlaw@psych.ubc.ca

Attention, Perception & Psychophysics

|January 5, 2010

Summary

Reflexive orienting to gaze cues does not require luminance transients. Object-based changes, not visual transients, appear to trigger attentional shifts in orienting responses.

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Visual Attention

Background:

Two theories explain reflexive orienting: one based on visual transients, the other on object changes.
The role of luminance transients in gaze-cueing reflexive orienting remains debated.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether luminance transients are necessary for gaze-cueing reflexive orienting.
To differentiate between transient-based and object-based explanations of attention shifts.

Main Methods:

A temporal order judgment paradigm was used.
Participants judged target onset timing under luminant and equiluminant conditions.
An uninformative gaze cue directed attention to one object location.

Main Results:

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Last Updated: Jun 17, 2026

Exploring Infant Sensitivity to Visual Language using Eye Tracking and the Preferential Looking Paradigm

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Published on: August 22, 2025

Participants showed reflexive orienting to the cued object, selecting it as appearing first more often.
This effect was consistent across both luminant and equiluminant conditions.
Luminance transients did not appear to be a necessary factor for orienting.

Conclusions:

Luminance transients are not required to trigger reflexive orienting to gaze cues.
Findings support an object-based hypothesis, suggesting object changes drive reflexive orienting.
Attention shifts are likely mediated by object properties rather than transient visual signals.