Target-Background Segregation in a Spatial Interference Paradigm Reveals Shared and Specific Attentional Mechanisms Triggered by Gaze and Arrows

Recent research has found that eye gaze and arrows yield opposite congruency effects in a spatial interference paradigm, arrows eliciting faster responses when their direction is congruent with their position (standard congruency effect), and gaze producing faster reaction times for incongruent conditions (reversed congruency effect). In addition, we observed by serendipity in a previous study that the standard effect with arrows was reduced when the target appeared within a complex background, presumably because of hindered figure-ground segregation. Under the same conditions, the reversed effect with gaze became more negative. To explain our previous results, we proposed the coexistence of two opposite attentional effects with eye gaze: a standard spatial interference component being common to both arrows and gaze, and a larger social-specific dimension leading to the overall reversion of the effect for gaze. Both in Experiments 1 and 2, gaze or arrow targets were presented after or concurrently with an irrelevant background (asynchronous vs. synchronous conditions, respectively). Consistent with our preregistered hypotheses, the standard effect with arrows was present in the asynchronous condition (automatic figure-ground segregation) but reduced in the synchronous one (difficult figure-ground segregation). Correspondingly with the effect on arrows interference, eye gaze triggered a significant reversed effect in the synchronous condition that decreased in the asynchronous one. These results underline the importance of the figure-ground segregation processes as modulators of the spatial conflict triggered by peripheral targets, and support our two-effect model, according to which gaze shares with nonsocial stimuli a domain-general orienting mechanism, but also triggers distinctive processes. Public Significance StatementEye gaze is a relevant cue in our daily social interactions that allows us to communicate information about our focus of attention, emotions, or intentions, among others. Unlike other directional cues of a nonsocial nature (e.g., arrows), gaze has been found to trigger singular attentional effects presumably due to its unique significance. The findings of the present study support this idea as they suggest that apart from conveying spatial information (which is shared with other nonsocial cues), gaze elicits additional social-specific attentional processes. These unique processes can have an impact on our behavior and might presumably un