Social cues, such as eye gaze and head-turns, can orient attention automatically. Social cue processing includes three sequential stages, namely cue selection, cue following and object recognition. In a typical social cueing task, a central face is presented and then attention is directed to potential target location by an eye gaze or head turn. In these paradigms, the standard finding is that despite the non-predictive nature of the cue (i.e., the target is as likely to appear at the validly cued location as the invalidly cued location), targets appearing at the validly cued location are detected and identified faster than targets presented at the invalidly cued location. The cueing effect starts to emerge at short cue-target stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA) (e.g., 105 ms) and diminishes at the long SOA (e.g., 1005 ms). However, because only one object was presented on one side of the center gaze cue in these paradigms, the social cueing effect could be interfered or abolished by the peripheral onset effect (i.e., the automatic orienting of attention by the abrupt appearance of a single object event). The goal of this dissertation was to develop a modified social cueing task to measure the temporal dynamics of social cue processing while eliminating the potential confounds from the peripheral onset effect. In the Cued Recognition Task, the peripheral onset effect is removed by simultaneously presenting a target and a distractor object following a non-predictive head-turn cue. Results from a series of experiments using the Cued Recognition Task showed that: (a) if the distractor was not presented on the opposite side of the target, the peripheral onset effect elicited by the target onset interfered with the social cueing effect elicited by the head-turn; (b) in the cued recognition paradigm, the reflexive attention orientation effect elicited by social cues could be inhibited at 0 ms of SOA, started to emerge at 105 ms of SOA, became stable at 300 and 600 ms of SOA and sustained at 1005 ms of SOA; (c) children with ASD showed equivalent magnitude of social cueing effect as TD controls, but they were slower across all conditions despite the fact that they were as fast as TD controls in object recognition. The Cued Recognition Model developed based on all the findings in this dissertation was described in order to provide an explicit explanation of how social cues influence everyday object recognition. / Graduate / 0633 / 0620 / 0623 / xubuyun@uvic.ca

It can be observed that the anti-normative behaviors occur more frequently in Computer-Mediated-Communication than in face-to-face communication. Internet often let people feel less restraint to use rude or threatening language, leashing harsh criticisms, venting anger or hatred. Thus, the issues surrounding ¡§Toxic Disinhibition¡¨ have attracted more and more concern from society and academia. Our empirical study tries to get the whole picture and proposed a more comprehensive model integrating diverse factors and involving the synthesis of different viewpoints. Accordingly, this paper proceeds to examine and integrate the two important aspects, (1) Internet attributes in which reduced social cue, social presence, controllability, and the fluidity of the identity and (2) psychological state, especially theories of deindividuation.Moreover, different from most prior researches, we consider deindividuation as an important mediating role, not just an antecedent of toxic disinhibition. An empirical survey methodology is applied to test the research model and six hypotheses are developed in this study, and then we use PLS to analyze it. Our empirical results showed that the essential mediating role of deindividuation, also confirming the highly significant with toxic disinhibition. Moreover, we identify major factors that may affect deindividuation. We find that except for reduced social cue, reduced social presence, controllability and fluidity of identity also has significant impact on deindividuation, and then cause toxic disinhibition. In sum, unlike much prior research that has focused on only a limited aspect of toxic disinhibition, we take integrated view and proposed a more comprehensive model therefore be useful to a better understanding of the nature of toxic disinhibition. And this study provides some suggestions for the online disinhibition research.

Gaze is an important social signal in interactions between humans, but also in interactions between humans and artificial agents such as robots, autonomous vehicles, or even avatars presented via displays. It can help to recognize to which persons or objects the interaction partners direct their attention and to infer their intentions to act. By consciously directing the gaze, it is possible to point to a specific position. In many works, arrows are used as learned, artificial directional cues for comparison with gaze cues. Three studies on different aspects of gaze perception form the core of this thesis. Study 1 deals with the estimation of gaze target positions in videoconferencing settings. For this purpose, pictures of persons ('senders' of gaze) who looked at certain positions on a screen were shown. The task of the subjects ('receivers' of the gaze) was to estimate these positions and mark them on their own screen by mouse click. The results show that the precision of such estimates is greater in the horizontal direction than in the vertical direction. Furthermore, a bias of the estimates in the direction of the senders' face or eyes was found. Studies 2 and 3 investigated the influence of cues on visual attention control using a so-called spatial cueing paradigm. After the appearance of a central cue, the participants' task was to respond to target stimuli away from the center of the screen by pressing keys. Whether the cue direction predicted the target position depended on the condition. In Study 2, schematic faces were compared with arrows. Data obtained when cues were used that always pointed in the opposite direction of the target, suggests that the direction of action of arrows is more easily overridden than that of gaze directions. A dynamic, geometric cue stimulus was investigated in Study 3. Here, a blue disc with two red lines moving from the center to the side served as a cue. This abstract stimulus resulted in a reaction time advantage in the direction of movement of the lines. After several trials, videos were shown in which a human avatar wearing a blue helmet, also with red lines, was shown from behind. When he looked sideways and turned his head, the lines moved in the opposite direction to his gaze. This was intended to elicit an alternative interpretation of the abstract cue as the back of the helmet. The results show a partial reduction of the initial effect of the abstract cue. This suggests that stimuli that do not resemble eyes can be learned as gaze and used as cues. In context of human-machine interactions the three studies provide fundamental insights into the human ability to estimate gaze orientation and the effect of gaze cues, which are particularly relevant for the design of gaze displays.:Contents Bibliographische Beschreibung Zusammenfassung 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Gaze as social cue 2 1.1.1 Joint attention 2 1.1.2 Biological and evolutionary perspective 3 1.1.3 Reflective and volitional processes 3 1.2 Cueing paradigms 4 1.2.1 Arrows predicting target position 5 1.2.2 Schematic faces that look only randomly in the direction of the target 5 1.3 Human gaze 6 1.3.1 Attention orientation and eye movements 6 1.3.2 Visual sensors in humans 6 1.4 Artificial gaze 8 1.4.1 Stationary displays 8 1.4.2 Precision of gaze direction estimation 9 1.4.3 Sensor types 9 1.4.4 Gaze of robots and mobile vehicles 10 1.5 Gaze as a communicative sensor system 11 1.6 Goals of the thesis 12 2 Summary of individual studies 14 2.1 Study 1: Gaze estimation in videoconferencing settings 14 2.2 Study 2: Attentional cueing: gaze is harder to override than arrows 15 2.3 Study 3: Effects of Interpreting a Dynamic Geometric Cue as Gaze on Attention Allocation 17 3 Discussion 19 3.1 Performance of gaze orientation estimates 19 3.2 Social cues 20 3.3 Sensor-display linkage 21 3.4 Future Perspectives 23 3.4.1 Receivers’ eye movements 23 3.4.2 Gaze in complex and interactive settings 24 3.4.3 Spatial cueing paradigm in product development 25 3.5 Conclusions 26 4 References 28 5 Appendix 36 Author’s Contributions 36 Gaze estimation in videoconferencing settings 37 Attentional cueing: gaze is harder to override than arrows 76 Accuracy 90 Cue Type 90 Cueing 90 Cue Type : Cueing 90 Effects of Interpreting a Dynamic Geometric Cue as Gaze on Attention Allocation 107 Danksagungen 130 / Blicke sind wichtige soziale Signale in Interaktionen zwischen Menschen, aber auch in Interaktionen zwischen Menschen und künstlichen Agenten wie Robotern, autonomen Fahrzeugen oder auch Avataren, die über Displays präsentiert werden. Sie können helfen zu erkennen, auf welche Personen oder Objekte die Interaktionspartner:innen ihre Aufmerksamkeit richten und auf deren Handlungsabsichten zu schließen. Durch bewusste Blickausrichtung kann gezielt in eine Richtung oder auf eine Position gezeigt werden. In vielen Arbeiten werden Pfeile als erlernte, künstliche Richtungshinweise zum Vergleich mit Blickhinweisen verwendet. Den Kern dieser Arbeit bilden drei Studien, die jeweils unterschiedliche Aspekte der Blickwahrnehmung untersuchen. Studie 1 beschäftigt sich mit der Schätzung von Blickzielpositionen in Videokonferenzsituationen. Dazu wurden Bilder von Personen ('Sender' der Blicke) gezeigt, die auf bestimmte Positionen auf einem Bildschirm blickten. Die Aufgabe der Versuchspersonen ('Empfänger' der Blicke) bestand darin, diese Positionen zu schätzen und auf dem eigenen Bildschirm per Mausklick zu markieren. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Präzision solcher Schätzungen in horizontaler Richtung größer ist als in vertikaler Richtung. Außerdem wurde eine Verzerrung der Schätzungen in Richtung des Gesichtes bzw. der Augen der Sender festgestellt. Studien 2 und 3 untersuchten den Einfluss von Hinweisreizen auf die visuelle Aufmerksamkeitslenkung mittels eines sogenannten Spatial Cueing Paradigmas. Die Aufgabe der Versuchspersonen bestand darin, nach dem Erscheinen eines Hinweisreizes in der Bildschirmmitte, der je nach Experiment und Bedingung in die Richtung des Zielreizes zeigte oder nicht, durch Tastendruck auf Zielreize neben der Bildschirmmitte zu reagieren. In Studie 2 wurden schematische Gesichter mit Pfeilen verglichen. Ergebnisse für Hinweisreize, die immer in die entgegengesetzte Richtung des Zielreizes zeigten, deuten darauf hin, dass die Wirkrichtung von Pfeilen leichter überschrieben werden kann als die von Blickrichtungen. Ein dynamischer, geometrischer Hinweisreiz wurde in Studie 3 untersucht. Hier diente eine blaue Scheibe mit zwei roten Linien, die sich von der Mitte zur Seite bewegten als Hinweisreiz. Dieser abstrakte Reiz führte zu einem Reaktionszeitvorteil in der Bewegungsrichtung der Linien. Nach einigen Durchgängen wurden Videos gezeigt, in denen ein menschlicher Avatar einen blauen Helm mit ebenfalls roten Linien trug. Der Avatar wurde von hinten gezeigt und wenn er seinen Blick zur Seite richtete und dazu den Kopf drehte, bewegten sich die Linien entgegen der Blickrichtung. Auf diese Weise sollte eine alternative Interpretation des abstrakten Hinweisreizes als Helmrückseite induziert werden. Die Ergebnisse zeigen eine teilweise Reduktion des ursprünglichen Effektes des abstrakten Hinweisreizes, was auf eine Wirkung der Induktionsvideos entgegen der ursprünglichen Wirkrichtung schließen lässt. Das weist darauf hin, dass auch Stimuli als Blicke gelernt und so als Hinweisreiz genutzt werden können, die keine Ähnlichkeit mit Augen haben. Eingebettet in den Kontext von Mensch-Maschine-Interaktionen, liefern die drei Studien grundlegende Erkenntnisse zur menschlichen Fähigkeit Blickausrichtung zu schätzen und der Wirkung von Blicken als Hinweisreize, die insbesondere für die Gestaltung von Blickdisplays relevant sind.:Contents Bibliographische Beschreibung Zusammenfassung 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Gaze as social cue 2 1.1.1 Joint attention 2 1.1.2 Biological and evolutionary perspective 3 1.1.3 Reflective and volitional processes 3 1.2 Cueing paradigms 4 1.2.1 Arrows predicting target position 5 1.2.2 Schematic faces that look only randomly in the direction of the target 5 1.3 Human gaze 6 1.3.1 Attention orientation and eye movements 6 1.3.2 Visual sensors in humans 6 1.4 Artificial gaze 8 1.4.1 Stationary displays 8 1.4.2 Precision of gaze direction estimation 9 1.4.3 Sensor types 9 1.4.4 Gaze of robots and mobile vehicles 10 1.5 Gaze as a communicative sensor system 11 1.6 Goals of the thesis 12 2 Summary of individual studies 14 2.1 Study 1: Gaze estimation in videoconferencing settings 14 2.2 Study 2: Attentional cueing: gaze is harder to override than arrows 15 2.3 Study 3: Effects of Interpreting a Dynamic Geometric Cue as Gaze on Attention Allocation 17 3 Discussion 19 3.1 Performance of gaze orientation estimates 19 3.2 Social cues 20 3.3 Sensor-display linkage 21 3.4 Future Perspectives 23 3.4.1 Receivers’ eye movements 23 3.4.2 Gaze in complex and interactive settings 24 3.4.3 Spatial cueing paradigm in product development 25 3.5 Conclusions 26 4 References 28 5 Appendix 36 Author’s Contributions 36 Gaze estimation in videoconferencing settings 37 Attentional cueing: gaze is harder to override than arrows 76 Accuracy 90 Cue Type 90 Cueing 90 Cue Type : Cueing 90 Effects of Interpreting a Dynamic Geometric Cue as Gaze on Attention Allocation 107 Danksagungen 130