Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 22, 2026
07:09
Gaze in Action: Head-mounted Eye Tracking of Children's Dynamic Visual Attention During Naturalistic Behavior
Published on: November 14, 2018
Investigating social gaze as an action-perception online performance
Ouriel Grynszpan1, Jérôme Simonin, Jean-Claude Martin
1Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CNRS-USR 3246, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Hôpital de La Salpêtrière Paris, France.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience
|April 25, 2012
Summary
This study shows that while gaze control can adapt automatically, people don't always realize they are the ones controlling it. This reveals a split between gaze adaptation and the sense of agency.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Social Interaction
Background:
- Gaze is crucial for non-verbal communication.
- Real-time self-regulation of social gaze is not well understood.
- Gaze involves both perception and action.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate how gaze-contingent viewing windows affect fixation patterns.
- Examine participants' awareness of being the agent controlling the viewing window.
- Explore the self-regulation of social gaze in virtual social interactions.
Main Methods:
- Used eye-tracking to monitor gaze behavior in 18 adult participants.
- Implemented a gaze-contingent viewing window in virtual human scenarios.
- Participants interpreted equivocal sentences by observing virtual character's expressions.
Main Results:
- Gaze-contingent viewing windows altered gaze behavior, increasing fixation duration.
- Only half of participants recognized their eye movements controlled the window.
- Those aware of agency spent more time viewing facial features (eyes, mouth).
Conclusions:
- Demonstrates a dissociation between automatic gaze adaptation and self-ascribed agency.
- Supports a two-step model of agency involving monitoring and reflexive processes.
- Highlights the method's utility for studying social cognition, including in autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
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