Effects of social gaze on visual-spatial imagination
Previous research suggests that closing one’s eyes or averting one’s gaze from another person can benefit visual-spatial imagination by interrupting cognitive demands associated with face-to-face interaction (Markson and Paterson, 2009). The present study further investigated this influence of socia...
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| Format: | Article |
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Frontiers media
2014
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38593/ |
| _version_ | 1848795647827771392 |
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| author | Buchanan, Heather Markson, Lucy Bertrand, Emma Greaves, Sian Pamar, Reena Paterson, Kevin B. |
| author_facet | Buchanan, Heather Markson, Lucy Bertrand, Emma Greaves, Sian Pamar, Reena Paterson, Kevin B. |
| author_sort | Buchanan, Heather |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Previous research suggests that closing one’s eyes or averting one’s gaze from another person can benefit visual-spatial imagination by interrupting cognitive demands associated with face-to-face interaction (Markson and Paterson, 2009). The present study further investigated this influence of social gaze on adults’ visual-spatial imagination, using the matrix task (Kerr, 1987, 1993). Participants mentally kept track of a pathway through an imaginary 2-dimensional (2D) or 3-dimensional (3D) matrix. Concurrent with this task, participants either kept their eyes closed or maintained eye contact with another person, mutual gaze with a person whose eyes were obscured (by wearing dark glasses), or unreciprocated gaze toward the face of a person whose own gaze was averted or whose face was occluded (by placing a paper bag over her head). Performance on the 2D task was poorest in the eye contact condition, and did not differ between the other gaze conditions, which produced ceiling performance. However, the more difficult 3D task revealed clear effects of social gaze. Performance on the 3D task was poorest for eye contact, better for mutual gaze, and equally better still for the unreciprocated gaze and eye-closure conditions. The findings reveal the especially disruptive influence of eye contact on concurrent visual-spatial imagination and a benefit for cognitively demanding tasks of disengaging eye contact during face-to-face interaction. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:35:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-38593 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T19:35:25Z |
| publishDate | 2014 |
| publisher | Frontiers media |
| recordtype | eprints |
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| spelling | nottingham-385932020-05-04T16:51:26Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38593/ Effects of social gaze on visual-spatial imagination Buchanan, Heather Markson, Lucy Bertrand, Emma Greaves, Sian Pamar, Reena Paterson, Kevin B. Previous research suggests that closing one’s eyes or averting one’s gaze from another person can benefit visual-spatial imagination by interrupting cognitive demands associated with face-to-face interaction (Markson and Paterson, 2009). The present study further investigated this influence of social gaze on adults’ visual-spatial imagination, using the matrix task (Kerr, 1987, 1993). Participants mentally kept track of a pathway through an imaginary 2-dimensional (2D) or 3-dimensional (3D) matrix. Concurrent with this task, participants either kept their eyes closed or maintained eye contact with another person, mutual gaze with a person whose eyes were obscured (by wearing dark glasses), or unreciprocated gaze toward the face of a person whose own gaze was averted or whose face was occluded (by placing a paper bag over her head). Performance on the 2D task was poorest in the eye contact condition, and did not differ between the other gaze conditions, which produced ceiling performance. However, the more difficult 3D task revealed clear effects of social gaze. Performance on the 3D task was poorest for eye contact, better for mutual gaze, and equally better still for the unreciprocated gaze and eye-closure conditions. The findings reveal the especially disruptive influence of eye contact on concurrent visual-spatial imagination and a benefit for cognitively demanding tasks of disengaging eye contact during face-to-face interaction. Frontiers media 2014-07-04 Article PeerReviewed Buchanan, Heather, Markson, Lucy, Bertrand, Emma, Greaves, Sian, Pamar, Reena and Paterson, Kevin B. (2014) Effects of social gaze on visual-spatial imagination. Frontiers in Psychology, 5 . 671/1-671/7. ISSN 1664-1078 Visual-spatial imagery Eye-closure Gaze aversion Social interaction http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00671 doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00671 doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00671 |
| spellingShingle | Visual-spatial imagery Eye-closure Gaze aversion Social interaction Buchanan, Heather Markson, Lucy Bertrand, Emma Greaves, Sian Pamar, Reena Paterson, Kevin B. Effects of social gaze on visual-spatial imagination |
| title | Effects of social gaze on visual-spatial imagination |
| title_full | Effects of social gaze on visual-spatial imagination |
| title_fullStr | Effects of social gaze on visual-spatial imagination |
| title_full_unstemmed | Effects of social gaze on visual-spatial imagination |
| title_short | Effects of social gaze on visual-spatial imagination |
| title_sort | effects of social gaze on visual-spatial imagination |
| topic | Visual-spatial imagery Eye-closure Gaze aversion Social interaction |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38593/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38593/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38593/ |