How does gaze to faces support face-to-face interaction? A review and perspective
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THEORETICAL REVIEW
How does gaze to faces support face-to-face interaction? A review and perspective Roy S. Hessels1,2
© The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Gaze—where one looks, how long, and when—plays an essential part in human social behavior. While many aspects of social gaze have been reviewed, there is no comprehensive review or theoretical framework that describes how gaze to faces supports face-to-face interaction. In this review, I address the following questions: (1) When does gaze need to be allocated to a particular region of a face in order to provide the relevant information for successful interaction; (2) How do humans look at other people, and faces in particular, regardless of whether gaze needs to be directed at a particular region to acquire the relevant visual information; (3) How does gaze support the regulation of interaction? The work reviewed spans psychophysical research, observational research, and eye-tracking research in both lab-based and interactive contexts. Based on the literature overview, I sketch a framework for future research based on dynamic systems theory. The framework holds that gaze should be investigated in relation to sub-states of the interaction, encompassing sub-states of the interactors, the content of the interaction as well as the interactive context. The relevant sub-states for understanding gaze in interaction vary over different timescales from microgenesis to ontogenesis and phylogenesis. The framework has important implications for vision science, psychopathology, developmental science, and social robotics. Keywords Gaze · Faces · Facial features · Social interaction · Dynamic system theory
Introduction Understanding how, when, and where gaze or visual attention is allocated in the visual world is an important goal in (vision) science, as it reveals fundamental insights into
This work was supported by the Consortium on Individual Development (CID). CID is funded through the Gravitation program of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science and the NWO (Grant No. 024.001.003). I am particularly grateful to Ignace Hooge for extensive discussions and comments on the theoretical framework here proposed. I am further grateful to Chantal Kemner, Gijs Holleman, Yentl de Kloe, Niilo Valtakari, Katja Dindar, and two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on earlier versions of this paper. Roy S. Hessels
[email protected]; [email protected] 1
Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands
2
Developmental Psychology, Heidelberglaan 1, 3584CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands
the organism–environment interaction. Throughout vision science’s history, the dominant approach to attaining this goal has been to study the ‘atomic’ features that ‘constitute’ the visual world—edges, orientations, colors, and so forth (e.g., Marr, 1982)—and determine how they drive the allocation of visual attention and gaze (e.g., Treisman & Gelade, 1980; Itti & Koch, 2000). Humans, as objects in the world that can b
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