The functional role of implicit memory on gaze-evoked attention orienting

Current computer science has paid more and more attention to the human being and the interaction between human being and computer. Eye-gaze is an important communication cue of human being. The better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of eye-gaze can facilitate development of many computer research fields. Previous fundamental researches about eye-gaze have proved that an uninformative cue by a centrally-presented face gazing to one-location can trigger reflexive shifts of attention in observers toward the location gazed at, facilitating the detection of simple targets. Depending on the results of this gaze-cueing paradigm, it has been widely accepted that perception of another people's gaze can shift observer's attention automatically and reflexively, which was called gaze-cueing effect. Present study is concerned with the influence of implicit short-term memory on gaze-cueing effect. The magnitude of gaze-cueing effect, which preceded by a cooperative or deceptive gaze, was compared. The results showed that the gaze-cueing effect was impaired when the previous gaze deceived observer about the target location. The results presented here support the hypothesis that gaze cueing of current perception is not purely automatic or reflexive, but influenced by the gaze-cueing states in immediate past. This processing is probably afforded by implicit visual memory traces of previous views in human brain. The implications of current research on computer science were also discussed.