Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Spatial Attention To Social Cues Is Not A Monolithic Process, Samuel M. Harding, Ty W. Boyer, Bennett I. Bertenthal

Department of Psychology Faculty Presentations

Social stimuli are a highly salient source of information, and seem to possess unique qualities that set them apart from other well-known categories. One characteristic is their ability to elicit spatial orienting, whereby directional stimuli like eyegaze and pointing gestures act as exogenous cues that trigger automatic shifts of attention that are difficult to inhibit. This effect has been extended to non-social stimuli, like arrows, leading to some uncertainty regarding whether spatial orienting is specialized for social cues. Using a standard spatial cueing paradigm, we found evidence that both a pointing hand and arrow are effective cues, but that the …