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Mental State Attributions Mediate the Gaze Cueing Effect
Emma J Morgan1,2, Megan Freeth2, Daniel T Smith1
1Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham DH1 3HP, UK.
Vision (Basel, Switzerland)
|November 19, 2019
Summary
Attributing mental states, like
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Social Neuroscience
Background:
- Understanding others' mental states is crucial for social interaction.
- Mental state attributions are thought to influence social attention and orienting.
- Recent studies question whether mentalizing truly drives gaze cueing effects.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if gaze cueing is mediated by mental state attributions across different experimental paradigms.
- To determine if the effect of mental state attribution on gaze cueing is robust and generalizable.
Main Methods:
- Employed a gaze cueing paradigm integrated into a change detection task.
- Manipulated the cue-agent's visual perception (ability to 'see') in experimental conditions.
- Assessed participants' ability to detect changes based on gaze cues.
Main Results:
- Participants' performance improved on valid trials when the cue-agent was perceived to be 'seeing'.
- This indicates that the cue-agent's mental state significantly influenced participants' attentional orienting.
- The findings support the role of mental state computation in modulating gaze cueing.
Conclusions:
- Mental state attributions demonstrably mediate gaze cueing effects.
- The influence of mental state attribution on gaze cueing generalizes beyond specific experimental setups.
- This reinforces the importance of mentalizing processes in social attention.
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