The presence of a sex difference in mutual eye-to-eye contact in dyadic interaction is well documented from late infancy through adulthood with females making more mutual eye contact than males. Only one study (Hittelman & Dickes, 1979) found evidence for this behavior pattern in newborns, but no research has been done to follow-up these findings. Systematic examination of the development of sex differences in mutual gaze behavior can aid in unraveling the differential effects of biological and social influences on the development of gendered social behavior. / This project was a longitudinal, within participants replication and extension of Hittelman and Dickes study: Seventy neonates (32 female, 38 male) age 13--112 hours postpartum and their parents participated in the Time 1 data collection, and 23 (9 female, 14 male) infants and their parents were seen a second time at 13--18 weeks postpartum (Time 2). Mutual gaze between the infant and two interacters (1 female, 1 male) was measured, and parents completed the Parental Sex-Typing of Newborns (Paston) Rating Scale to measure their sex-typed perceptions of newborns and young infants. / Results indicated: (a) No empirical evidence for sex differences at Time 1; (b) Strong evidence for sex differences in mutual gaze behavior at Time 2 indicating development of this sex-typed pattern in early infancy; (c) The emergence of sex differences in mutual gaze behavior from Time 1 to Time 2 is entirely accounted for by a radical change in female infants' gaze behavior; and (d) Empirical evidence linking mothers' sex-typed beliefs about their infants and infants' sex-typed gaze behavior. / Results are discussed within the theoretical contexts of the social learning and biological perspectives. This study demonstrates that infants' sex-typed behavior and mothers' gender-typed perceptions begin early in life. It is concluded that sex differences in mutual gaze behavior are a complex interplay of biological or social forces acting in concert. Subsequent research in this area should focus on the specific forces involved in bringing sex differences in mutual gaze behavior to fruition.

Senare forskning har börjat jämföra etablerade principer inom filmklippning med rön från kognitionsforskning. Ny teknik gör det möjligt att på ett adekvatare sätt ta del av åskådarens upplevelse och interaktion med rörlig bildmedia. Tidigare studier som tas upp i texten har varit inriktade på visuella aspekter, hur brott mot videoredigerings- principer påverkar åskådarens ögonrörelser. Då film och video är ett audiovisuellt medium är det angeläget att undersöka hur ljud påverkar vår visuella bearbetning. Uppsatsens ansats är att undersöka hur varierad synkronisering mellan ljud och bild påverkar och förändrar uppmärksamheten hos åskådare av rörlig bildmedia. Två stimulifilmer har satts samman, en Onbeat version där klipp-punkter i videomaterialet och musikens taktslag ligger i synk, och en Offbeat version där klipp-punkter i videomaterialet ligger fem bildrutor efter musikens taktslag. Som underlag för experimentstudien har 15 försöksdeltagare testats i en ögonrörelsestudie. Resultaten visar på signifikanta skillnader mellan de båda stimulifilmerna, där Offbeat versionen genererade fler ögonrörelser hos försöksdeltagarna.

Recent evidence has shown that our emotional facial expressions evolved to functionally benefit the expression’s sender, in particular fear increasing and disgust decreasing sensory acquisition. Using schematic eyes only that lack emotional content, but taken from actual participant fear and disgust expressions, we examined the functional action resonance hypothesis that adaptive benefits are also conferred to the expression’s receiver. Participants’ eye gaze discrimination was enhanced when viewing wider, “fear” eyes versus narrower, “disgust” eyes (Experiment 1). Using a gaze cuing paradigm, task facilitation by way of faster responses to target was found when viewing wider versus narrower eyes (Experiment 2). Contrary to our hypothesis, a null attention modulation for wider versus narrower eyes was found (Experiments 2 and 3). Nonetheless, the evidence is argued for the functional action resonance hypothesis.

Despite their undisputed importance to embryonic growth, the role of mRNA transport proteins in the developing visual system has been widely uncharacterized. Through RNA interference, this study aims to discover the function of Staufen 2 (Stau2), an mRNA transport protein, in chick eye development. When Stau2-miRNA was electroporated into the E1.5 primary optic vesicle, two days later they exhibited a reduction of eye size by 47%, whereas control miRNA did not significantly change eye size. TUNEL, β-III tubulin and BrdU staining were used to analyze the retinal apoptotic, differentiation and proliferative levels respectively, in response to Stau2 knockdown. These data suggest that the small eye is a result of a decrease in proliferation, and not cell death or pre-mature differentiation. Rescue experiments were done with each of the three Stau2 isoforms and confirmed both the direct effect of Stau2-miRNA and the involvement of these isoforms in eye development.

Recent evidence has shown that our emotional facial expressions evolved to functionally benefit the expression’s sender, in particular fear increasing and disgust decreasing sensory acquisition. Using schematic eyes only that lack emotional content, but taken from actual participant fear and disgust expressions, we examined the functional action resonance hypothesis that adaptive benefits are also conferred to the expression’s receiver. Participants’ eye gaze discrimination was enhanced when viewing wider, “fear” eyes versus narrower, “disgust” eyes (Experiment 1). Using a gaze cuing paradigm, task facilitation by way of faster responses to target was found when viewing wider versus narrower eyes (Experiment 2). Contrary to our hypothesis, a null attention modulation for wider versus narrower eyes was found (Experiments 2 and 3). Nonetheless, the evidence is argued for the functional action resonance hypothesis.

Despite their undisputed importance to embryonic growth, the role of mRNA transport proteins in the developing visual system has been widely uncharacterized. Through RNA interference, this study aims to discover the function of Staufen 2 (Stau2), an mRNA transport protein, in chick eye development. When Stau2-miRNA was electroporated into the E1.5 primary optic vesicle, two days later they exhibited a reduction of eye size by 47%, whereas control miRNA did not significantly change eye size. TUNEL, β-III tubulin and BrdU staining were used to analyze the retinal apoptotic, differentiation and proliferative levels respectively, in response to Stau2 knockdown. These data suggest that the small eye is a result of a decrease in proliferation, and not cell death or pre-mature differentiation. Rescue experiments were done with each of the three Stau2 isoforms and confirmed both the direct effect of Stau2-miRNA and the involvement of these isoforms in eye development.

Theories of age-related memory decline debate whether the problem lies at the level of encoding or consciously accessing information at the level of retrieval. Deficits at encoding may be due to the inability to bind relations among objects. The present research implements eye movement monitoring into an associative memory task to explore age-related memory at encoding and retrieval. Eye movements of older and younger adults are compared. Three solitary items were presented during the study phase, and test responses were whether the spatial relation of these objects to one another was intact or manipulated when subsequently presented all together. Observed differences at the level of encoding in addition to the level of retrieval clarifies that there is not a deficit in consciously accessing encoded representations. Further, differences in relational binding at the level of encoding were observed, which supports the association deficit theory of memory and aging.

The present study used eye-tracking to investigate whether a model’s gaze direction influences the way observers look at the entire body of the model and how this interacts with the observer and the model’s gender. Participants viewed individual male and female computer agents during both a free-viewing task and a rating task to evaluate the attractiveness of each character. The results indicated that both male and female participants primarily gazed at the models’ faces. Participants also spent more time scanning the face when rating the attractiveness of each model. Observers tended to scan faces with a direct gaze longer than faces with an averted gaze for both the free-viewing and attractiveness rating tasks. Lastly, participants evaluated models with a direct gaze as more attractive than models with an averted gaze. As these results occurred for pictures of computer agents, and not actual people, this suggests that direct gaze, and faces in general, are powerful for engaging attention. In summary, both task requirements and gaze direction modified face viewing preference.

The present four studies are the first to examine the effect of presentation time on accurate facial expression discrimination while concurrently using eye movement monitoring to ensure fixation to specific features during the brief presentation of the entire face. Recent studies using backward masking and evaluating accuracy performance with signal detection methods (A’) have identified a happy-face advantage however differences between other facial expressions of emotion have not been reported. In each study, a specific exposure time before mask (150, 100, 50, or 16.67 ms) and eight different fixation locations were used during the presentation of neutral, disgusted, fearful, happy, and surprised expressions. An effect of emotion was found across all presentation times such that the greatest performance was seen for happiness, followed by neutral, disgust, surprise, and with the lowest performances seen for fear. Fixation to facial features specific to an emotion did not improve performance and did not account for the differences in accuracy performance between emotions. Rather, results suggest that accuracy performance depends on the integration of facial features, and that this varies across emotions and with presentation time.

Purpose: To test the hypothesis that the fixational stability (FS) of the amblyopic eye (AME) in strabismics will improve when binocular integration is enhanced through ocular alignment and inter-ocular suppression is attenuated by reducing the contrast to the fellow eye (FFE). Methods: 7 strabismic amblyopes (age: 30.8±9.7 yrs) (5 esotropes and 2 exotrope) (VA: AME=0.50±0.30; FFE=-0.12±0.04) showing clinical characteristics of central suppression were recruited. Suppression was then attenuated by a balance point procedure where the contrast to the FFE was reduced in order to maximize binocular integration during a global motion task (GMT) (Baker, 2007). In one case the balance point could not be determined, and the participant was excluded. Ocular alignment was established with a haploscope. Participants dichoptically viewed similar targets [a cross (2.3°) surrounded by a square (11.3°) visual angle] set at 40cm. Target contrasts presented to each eye were either equal (EQ) or attenuated in the FFE (UNEQ) by an amount defined by the GMT. FS was measured over a 5 min period (Viewpoint® Eye Tracker, Arrington Research) and quantified using bivariate contour ellipse areas (BCEA) in four different binocular conditions; unaligned/EQ, unaligned/UNEQ, aligned/EQ and aligned/UNEQ. FS was also measured in 6 control subjects (Age: 25.3±4 yrs; VA: -0.1±0.08). Results: Alignment of the AME was transient and lasting between 30 to 80 seconds. Accordingly, FS was analyzed over the first 30 seconds using repeated measures ANOVA. Post hoc analysis revealed that for the amblyopic subjects, the FS of the AME was significantly improved in aligned/EQ (p=0.015) and aligned/UNEQ (p=0.001). FS of FFE was not different statistically across conditions. BCEA(FFE) & BCEA(AME) were then averaged for each amblyope in the 4 conditions and compared with normals. This averaged BCEA (reduced FS) was significantly greater (p=0.0205) in amblyopes compared to controls except in the case of alignment coupled with reduced suppression (aligned/UNEQ) (p=0.1232). Conclusion: Fixation stability in the amblyopic eye of strabismics appears to improve directly with the degree of binocular integration. The hypothesis is therefore retained.