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Abstract

Research has shown that individuals detect direct eyes (those directed to the observer) more quickly and accurately than averted eyes (those directed elsewhere), a phenomenon known as the direct-gaze advantage. However, the underlying mechanisms of this advantage remain poorly understood. The current study employed a visual search task to investigate whether the direct-gaze advantage in capturing attention is contingent upon a specific configuration (face configuration or eyes configuration). In two experiments, participants were presented with four images and asked to judge whether there was a target with a direct or averted gaze. Experiment 1 revealed that participants showed the direct-gaze advantage across three image types: intact faces (maintaining both two-eye and face configuration), scrambled faces with intact eyes (disrupting the face configuration while preserving the two-eye configuration), and fully scrambled faces (preserving only the single-eye configuration). Experiment 2 further demonstrated that participants showed the direct-gaze advantage for scrambled faces with intact eyes and fully scrambled faces under the upright condition. Interestingly, under the inverted condition, participants only showed the direct-gaze advantage for scrambled faces with intact eyes. These findings indicate that the direct-gaze advantage is influenced by the configuration of two eyes and the configuration of a single eye, but it is not dependent on facial contexts.

Keywords

direct-gaze advantage face configuration eyes configuration visual search task

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Eye configuration influences the detection advantage of direct gaze

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