Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-98).

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 45 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 44-45).

This paper provides an account of how a normative male gaze is produced and upheld even in a video game famed for its inclusive nature, Dragon Age: Inquisition. The analysis originates in content studies concerning the portrayal of gender in video games in relation to in-game physical gender portrayal. It is followed by a contextualization of specific video sequences and certain game mechanics in relation to Laura Mulvey’s feminist film theory about the Male Gaze. Mulvey’s film theory approach, while useful as an intellectual tool, is not developed to be applied to video games and thus it is also necessary to consider any implications related to the interactivity of the game. As characters are subjected to a gendered male gaze in relation to both their physical appearance and attributes they are made to uphold the normative status quo. The Gaze is evident in how characters are portrayed, how the main character becomes a default male character regardless of actual gender and in the construction of women as something other. But most importantly, in the actual game mechanics through which all characters become objects for the player to use either in combat or to own in the guise of offering romance to the narrative.

This essay uses Sara Ahmed's theory of affect to analyze Jamaica Kincaid´s A Small Place. I argue that Jamaica Kincaid uses anger to create a position for Western reader and to evoke emotions such as shame. Theorist Sara Ahmed argues that emotions have political dimension. Thus, I will use Sara Ahmed´s theory to examine what function anger and shame have in A Small Place. In her essay, Kincaid provokes her readers by attacking them for past injustice through anger. Because of this many critics have claimed that A Small Place has an angry tone. However, Kincaid´s aim seems to be to reverse the gaze by exposing the Europeans and Americans of exploitation, slavery, imperialism and colonization and this way reverse the traditional travel gaze, which allows us to see Antigua through the perspective of the third world.

This paper examines how the reality competition television program American Idol serves to reinforce gendered, racialized and heteronormative stereotypes, particularly for female contestants. Through its "democratic" style of public audience voting, those competitors who not only sing well, but also perform their gender and race to standards which have been deemed by the judges to be appropriate mainstream American culture, prove to be the most successful on the program. Through a content analysis of the show's first four seasons, I find that those female contestants who begin their tenure in the contest by fitting into categories which would be considered stereotypical for their gender and race, and continue to appear and behave in this manner, move farther along in the competition than their peers appear to be more innovative. I also find that while the judges comments suggest that American Idol purports to be looking for someone "unique," the contestants who do well in the competition are in fact not exceptional, but rather fit into "conventional" performances of either white or African American women. Those who present themselves as too different, that is, "deviant" from gendered or racialized performances end up being voted off the show before getting their chance to be crowned American Idol.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) use atypical approaches when processing facial stimuli. The first purpose of this research was to investigate face processing abilities in adults with ASD using several tasks, to compare patterns of interference between static identity and expression processing in adults with ASD and typical adults, and to investigate whether the introduction of dynamic cues caused members of one or both groups to shift from a global to a more local processing strategy. The second purpose was to compare the gaze behaviour of groups of participants as they viewed static and dynamic single- and multiple-character scenes. I tested 16 adults with ASD and 16 sex-, age-, and IQ-matched typical controls. In Study 1, participants completed a task designed to assess processing speed, another to measure visual processing bias, and two tasks involving static and dynamic face stimuli -- an identity-matching task and a Garner selective attention task. Adults with ASD were less sensitive to facial identity, and, unlike typical controls, showed negligible interference between identity and expression processing when judging both static and moving faces. In Study 2, participants viewed scenes while their gaze behaviour was recorded. Overall, participants with ASD showed fewer and shorter fixations on faces compared to their peers. Additionally, whereas the introduction of motion and increased social complexity of the scenes affected the gaze behaviour of typical adults, only the latter manipulation affected adults with ASD. My findings emphasize the importance of using dynamic displays when studying typical and atypical face processing mechanisms. / October 2015

Kalinauskis T. Teksto redagavimo programų valdymas žvilgsniu: Elektronikos inžinerijos magistro darbas/ mokslinis vadovas doc. dr. G. Daunys; Šiaulių universitetas, technologijos fakultetas, Elektronikos inžinerijos katedra, – Šiauliai, 2007. – 76p. Žmogus, dėl įvairių priežasči�� praradęs galimybę valdyti jį supančią aplinką, praradęs galimybę bendrauti su kitais žmonėmis, susiduria su daugeliu problemų. Dažnai asmenys, negalintys judėti ar kalbėti, tampa atstumtaisiais, izoliuotais nuo visuomenės ir pan. Tokiais atvejais jie jaučiasi nenaudingi, priklausomi nuo aplinkinių. Neįgalių žmonių problema yra visuomenės problema, kurią reikia spręsti. Tekstui rinkti ir redaguoti Microsoft Word programoje buvo sukurta žvilgsniu valdoma WordControl programa skirta neįgaliesiems, turintiems didelę negalią, t.y. visiškai negalintiems judėti. Tyrimas buvo atliekamas Šiaulių universiteto kompiuterių klasėje. Tyrimui atlikti buvo naudojamas „LC Technologies Eyegaze System“ kompiuteris. Tyrime dalyvavo 20 – 50 metų amžiaus tiriamieji. Atliktas tyrimas padėjo išsiaiškinti, koks yra teksto spausdinimo greitis bei daromų klaidų skaičius panaudojant skirtingus teksto rinkimo ir redagavimo metodus. / Kalinauskis T. Control of Text Editing programs by Eye Gaze: Master thesis of electronics engineer/ research advisor doc. dr. G. Daunys; Šiauliai University, Technological Faculty, Electronics Engineering Department. – Šiauliai, 2007. – 76p. A human being, who has lost a possibility to control surrounding environment because of different reasons and to communicate with other people, faces many problems. Frequently, the people, who can not move or speak, become isolated from society and similarly. In such cases they feel themselves unhelpful, dependent on the people round about. The problem of the disabled people is the problem of society, which needs to be solved. To print and edit text in Microsoft Word programme, Word Control programme for the disabled was created, i.e., the people, who have a big disability, i.e. cannot move at all. The research was carried out at a computer class of Šiauliai University. A computer “LC Technologies Eye gaze System” was used for the research. The researched of 20-50 years old have participated in the research. The made research made to clear out what is printing speed and the number of made mistakes using different printing and editing methods.

Face-to-face communication is one of the most natural forms of interaction between humans. Speech perception is an important part of this interaction. While speech could be said to be primarily auditory in nature, visual information can play a significant role in influencing perception. It is not well understood what visual information is important or how that information is collected. Previous studies have documented the preference to gaze at the eyes, nose, and mouth of the talking face, but physical saliency, i.e., the unique low-level features of the stimulus, has not been explicitly examined. Two eye-tracking experiments are presented to investigate the role of physical saliency in the guidance of gaze fixations during audiovisual speech perception. Experiment 1 quantified the physical saliency of a talking face and examined its relationship with the gaze behaviour of participants performing an audiovisual speech perception task and an emotion judgment task. The majority of fixations were made to locations on the face that exhibited high relative saliency, but not necessarily the maximally salient location. The addition of acoustic background noise resulted in a change in gaze behaviour and a decrease in correspondence between saliency and gaze behaviour, whereas changing the task did not alter this correspondence despite changes in gaze behaviour. Experiment 2 manipulated the visual information available to the viewer by using animated full-feature and point-light talking faces. Removing static information, such as colour, intensity, and orientation, from the stimuli elicited both a change in gaze behaviour and a decrease in correspondence between saliency and gaze behaviour. Removing dynamic information, particularly head motion, resulted in a decrease in correspondence between saliency and gaze behaviour without any change in gaze behaviour. The results of these experiments show that, while physical saliency is correlated with gaze behaviour, it cannot be the single factor determining the selection of gaze fixations. Interactions within and between bottom-up and top-down processing are suggested to guide the selection of gaze fixations during audiovisual speech perception. / Thesis (Master, Neuroscience Studies) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-18 13:10:01.694

When vestibular sense organs suffer damage functional problems arise such as imbalance and falls as well as difficulty with gaze control, resulting in blurred vision, dizziness and feelings of disorientation. A novel computer-based rehabilitation program has been developed. Using the Gyration TM motion-sense mouse, attached to a headband, to control computer applications and games, the participants were able to interact with targets in computer games through head motion, allowing different gaze exercises to be carried out. Balance exercises can be incorporated simultaneously and progressively into the rehabilitation program. The main findings of this study revealed that using head rotation to interact with computer games coupled with demanding balance conditions resulted in substantial improvements in gaze control, standing balance and walking performance. These observations provide support that a low-cost home computer-gaming rehabilitation program is well suited to train gaze control through active and passive head motion and to concomitantly train standing balance.

During domestication, the dog( Canis familiaris), have become skilful in understanding human communication and also in communicating with humans. The wolf ( Canis lupus), is not as skilled with this interspecific communication. When dogs are faced with an unsolvable problem, they seek help from human by e.g. gazing at them. This behaviour has been studied and both age and breed group differences have been showed. In this study, we presented dogs with a task that consisted of a solvable and unsolvable problem in order to see if they gazed at their owner and/or an unfamiliar person for help. Although we did not find any difference in breed groups regarding gazing at humans, we did find that adult dogs (dogs older than 2 years) gazed more frequently at their owner and for a longer duration than adolescent dogs (6 months to 2 years). This may be because the adult dogs have more experience of this communication with humans, as they have lived longer with them. These findings empathize the bond between a dog and its owner that seems to grow stronger during the dogs’ life.