The influence of perceptual load on gaze-induced attentional orienting: The modulation of expectation

•Dynamic gaze cues are more effective than static gaze cues in triggering attentional orienting.•In the condition of low perceptual load, non-predictive and predictive gaze cues induced significant attentional effects (i.e., the gaze cue effect).•In the condition of high perceptual load, only predictive gaze cues (enhanced participants’ expectation) induced the GCE.•The influence of perceptual load on gaze-induced attentional orienting is modulated by participants’ expectation. Humans tend to focus on others’ gaze. Previous studies have shown that the gaze direction of others can induce corresponding attentional orienting. However, gaze cues have typically been presented alone in these studies. It is unclear how gaze cues induce observers’ attention in complicated contexts with additional perceptual information. Therefore, the present study investigated gaze-induced attentional orienting at different levels of perceptual load. Results indicated that the attentional effect of the dynamic gaze cue (i.e., GCE: gaze cue effect) emerged under low perceptual load and disappeared under high perceptual load. The absence of GCE could not attribute to perceptual capacity exhaustion. Moreover, the influence of perceptual load on gaze-induced attentional orienting was modulated by individuals’ expectation. Specifically, the GCE occurred under high perceptual load when the gaze cue was predictive (with individuals’ expectation). These findings provide new evidence on the mode of gaze-induced attentional orienting under different perceptual load conditions.