Age-related changes in gaze behaviour during social interaction: An eye-tracking study with an embodied...

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Previous research indicates age-related differences in processing emotional expressions using static stimuli.
• Existing studies often lack interactive elements, limiting ecological validity in social perception research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate age-related variations in social and emotional perception using an interactive virtual environment.
• To examine how gaze behavior differs between young and older adults during social interactions with an agent.
• To explore the influence of personality traits (Big Five) and anxiety on gaze patterns.

Main Methods:

• Employed an interactive virtual environment for face-to-face conversations between participants and an embodied conversational agent.
• Recruited 22 young (18-30 years) and 20 older (60-80 years) adults.
• Utilized eye-tracking technology to capture gaze behavior during interactions and administered personality and anxiety questionnaires.

Main Results:

• Age-related differences in gaze behavior were observed specifically during social signal decoding (listening, expression identification), not during social information communication (speaking).
• Higher levels of extraversion correlated with reduced eye-gaze duration.
• Anxiety showed minor modulations in gaze patterns, primarily during the listening phase of conversations.

Conclusions:

• Interactive virtual agents offer a naturalistic setting for assessing socio-emotional interactions, particularly in older adults.
• Findings highlight specific contexts where older adults might face challenges in social interactions, particularly in decoding social cues.
• Gaze behavior in social interactions is modulated by age, personality, and anxiety levels.