Gaze Signaling in Interactive and Collaborative Small- and Large-Scale Actions (GazeACT)

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Rouwen Cañal Bruland; Professorin Dr. Katja Fiehler
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 562910865

Research on eye movements examining perceptual and cognitive processes have primarily been studied in isolated (single observer) scenarios, even when aiming to scrutinize social interactions and/or collaborations in humans. While there is some evidence to suggest that gaze in small-scale and large-scale human social interactions and collaborations can be highly informative to understand the intentions of others, our general understanding of gaze signaling in such scenarios is very limited. Therefore, the aim of this tandem research project is to examine the function of gaze signaling in guiding actions in small-scale hand movements and large-scale whole-body movements in dynamic, real-time interactive and collaborative tasks while measuring gaze of two individuals (i.e., two interactors/ two collaborators). Interactive tasks refer to tasks in which two individuals interact while each individual pursues their own goals (e.g., grasping and handing over an object or walking past another without colliding). In contrast, collaborative tasks refer to tasks in which two individuals perform a task together to achieve a joint goal (e.g., jointly grasping and lifting an object to fit it into a frame or carrying a table together to fit it through a gap). Studying these tasks will allow us (i) to identify, characterize, and compare gaze patterns in interactive and collaborative actions, and specifically to improve our understanding of (ii) how gaze signaling and its interpretation changes while actions unfold over time, and (iii) how gaze signaling is affected by factors of the other person (e.g., informational value of the other’s gaze) and the joint task itself (e.g., task difficulty). With this tandem (i.e., small-scale and large-scale) approach, this project aims at making a significant contribution to two key development areas of UGaze, namely (I) Gaze Expression and (II) Gaze Sharing, across a broad range of commonplace, social human interactive and collaborative daily tasks.

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes
• Subproject of: SPP 2481: Understanding Gaze