The Center of Attention: Metamers, Sensitivity, and Bias in the Emergent Perception of Gaze
Publication Date
2-2017
Document Type
Article
Organizational Units
College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology
Keywords
Gaze perception, Face perception, Emergent, Categorical perception, Eyes
Abstract
A person’s gaze reveals much about their focus of attention and intentions. Sensitive perception of gaze is thus highly relevant for social interaction, especially when it is directed toward the viewer. Yet observers also tend to overestimate the likelihood that gaze is directed toward them. How might the visual system balance these competing goals, maximizing sensitivity for discriminating gazes that are relatively direct, while at the same time allowing many gazes to appear as if they look toward the viewer? Perceiving gaze is an emergent visual process that involves integrating information from the eyes with the rotation of the head. Here, we examined whether the visual system leverages emergent representation to balance these competing goals. We measured perceived gaze for a large range of pupil and head combinations and found that head rotation has a nonlinear influence on a person’s apparent direction of looking, especially when pupil rotations are relatively direct. These perceptual distortions could serve to expand representational space and thereby enhance discriminability of gazes that are relatively direct. We also found that the emergent perception of gaze supports an abundance of direct gaze metamers—different combinations of head and pupil rotations that combine to generate the appearance of gaze directed toward the observer. Our results thus demonstrate a way in which the visual system flexibly integrates information from facial features to optimize social perception. Many gazes can be made to look toward you, yet similar gazes need not appear alike.
Copyright Date
1-10-2017
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by Elsevier Ltd. User is responsible for all copyright compliance. This article was originally published as:
Sweeny, T. D., & Whitney, D. (2017). The center of attention: Metamers, sensitivity, and bias in the emergent perception of gaze. Vision Research, 131, 67-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2016.10.014
Rights Holder
Elsevier Ltd.
Provenance
Received from CHORUS
File Format
application/pdf
Language
English (eng)
Extent
8 pgs
File Size
869 KB
Publication Title
Vision Research
Volume
131
First Page
67
Last Page
74
ISSN
1878-5646
Recommended Citation
Sweeny, T. D., & Whitney, D. (2017). The center of attention: Metamers, sensitivity, and bias in the emergent perception of gaze. Vision Research, 131, 67-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2016.10.014