Project Details
Projekt
More than meets the eye: Integration, influences and impairments of direct gaze processing
Applicant
Professorin Dr. Anne Böckler-Raettig
Subject Area
General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
Term
from 2017 to 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 387752651
In recent years, psychological research has become increasingly interested in the attentional, affective and cognitive processes that enable human coordination and cooperation. A promising avenue in the pursuit of this endeavor is the investigation of basic mechanisms of social cognition in increasingly complex interactive settings and in populations with specific interpersonal deficits. One such basic effect is the reflexive tendency to follow the gaze of others. While research has greatly advanced our understanding of gaze following and its role in information processing and successful interaction, far less is known about the powerful cue of eye contact, or direct gaze. The present proposal aims at comprehensively studying the underlying mechanisms and the functional significance of eye contact. Three consecutive projects will investigate direct gaze processing in experimentally controlled settings of increasing interpersonal complexity and in participant samples with impaired social abilities. Project 1 assesses manual and gaze behavior in attention capture tasks to gain insight into the preconditions and temporal dynamics of the integration of information provided by direct gaze and other socially relevant cues (e.g. emotional expressions, signals of trustworthiness and dominance). In Project 2, the role of eye contact on empathy, cognitive perspective-taking and interpersonal decision-making (e.g. generosity) is probed in real-life based, strictly validated and experimentally controlled tasks of social understanding and interaction. In order to address the role of eye contact in both interaction partners, gaze behavior is tracked in the participant and experimentally manipulated in an interaction partner. Neuroimaging data complements data on performance and gaze behavior to gain further insight into the dynamic interplay of neural networks underlying social attention and interaction. Finally, Project 3 applies the simple and straightforward paradigms of Projects 1 and 2 in carefully selected and diagnosed adolescents with social anxiety disorder (SAD) and conduct disorder (CD), compared to control participants. Through the systematic investigation of differences in basic gaze processing and spontaneous gaze behavior and their role in social understanding and interaction deficits, this project can inform existing frameworks of SAD/CD as well as the development of targeted interventions. Insights gained from all three projects will further our theoretical understanding of the mechanisms and the functional significance of direct gaze in meaningful contexts of social understanding and interaction.
DFG Programme
Independent Junior Research Groups
International Connection
Canada
