Project Details
Projekt
Decoding the semantics of basic gaze patterns: Towards an unbiased extraction of meaning and its dependency on situational demands
Subject Area
General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
Term
since 2025
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 562993814
Many non-verbal communication signals during social interaction originate in facial expressions and gaze patterns. Surprisingly, systematic research on how basic gaze patterns are interpreted is rare. Beside a planned literature review on this, we assess how gaze is understood empirically based on a recently published pilot study from our group. We utilize a novel two-step qualitative-quantitative experimental approach to decode the semantics of gaze patterns (and its contextual modulations). We investigate effects of different gaze patterns of an avatar on gaze perception by having participants watch videos of persons listening to different types of narrations (thereby varying situational demands). The listeners’ gaze is manipulated in terms of directions (direct/up/down/side) and gaze shift/blink frequencies. In a qualitative-exploratory step, participants freely describe which states/traits they attribute to the various gaze patterns to overcome any researcher-induced biases inherent in previous studies. We then construct rating scales for the follow-up quantitative-confirmatory step. Participants’ eye movements are measured to assess how these contribute to gaze understanding. We want to reveal systematic meanings ascribed to the listeners’ gaze behavior. The project then transfers this approach to real-life situations with confederates exhibiting gaze patterns (instead of videos) to analyze mutual gaze in real life situations. We also investigate what renders gaze patterns natural by recording natural eye movements in comparable situations as a model for avatar programming. Finally, we will also analyze the understanding of gaze in bargaining situations. This project represents an important step towards a systematic understanding of gaze.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
Subproject of
SPP 2481:
Understanding Gaze
Co-Investigator
Dr. Benedict C. O. F. Fehringer
