Andrea Marotta

The human ability to perceive and interpret others’ gaze direction is crucial for social interaction and may rely on specialized attentional mechanisms. A particularly striking finding in this domain is the reversed congruency effect (RCE), in which responses are faster when gaze direction and spatial position are incongruent. Two experiments (44 participants each) tested how gaze deviation modulates this effect to test two competing accounts: the eye-contact hypothesis, which attributes the RCE to implicit misperceptions of direct gaze, and the joint-attention hypothesis, which links it to shared attention toward a common focus. Participants performed a spatial interference task in which faces displayed either partially or fully averted gaze. A robust RCE emerged for partially averted gaze, while the effect was reduced for fully averted ones, a pattern that constrains competing accounts of the RCE. Subjective ratings confirmed that subtle deviations were perceived as more direct, but congruency did not affect explicit judgments of being looked at. This dissociation suggests that the RCE may reflect implicit processes related to the social interpretation of gaze rather than explicit awareness, providing constraints on competing accounts of gaze-based attention.

The human ability to perceive and interpret others’ gaze direction is crucial for social interaction and may rely on specialized attentional mechanisms. A particularly striking finding in this domain is the reversed congruency effect (RCE), in which responses are faster when gaze direction and spatial position are incongruent. Two experiments (44 participants each) tested how gaze deviation modulates this effect to test two competing accounts: the eye-contact hypothesis, which attributes the RCE to implicit misperceptions of direct gaze, and the joint-attention hypothesis, which links it to shared attention toward a common focus. Participants performed a spatial interference task in which faces displayed either partially or fully averted gaze. A robust RCE emerged for partially averted gaze, while the effect was reduced for fully averted ones, a pattern consistent with the eye-contact hypothesis. Subjective ratings confirmed that subtle deviations were perceived as more direct, but congruency did not affect explicit judgments of being looked at. This dissociation suggests that the RCE may reflect implicit, automatic processes related to eye-contact detection rather than explicit awareness, providing new insight into the social mechanisms that shape gaze-based attention.

The Reversed Congruency Effect (RCE) typically observed with gaze targets has been rarely demonstrated with non-social stimuli like arrows targets. In a novel approach, we conducted two pre-registered experiments to investigate whether the RCE can be elicited using non-social stimuli (arrows) when directional information is visually masked. Participants performed a spatial Stroop task with arrows varying in perceptual complexity due to overlapping visual masks. Direction and spatial location were either congruent or incongruent. Remarkably, highly masked arrows elicited an RCE, with faster responses on incongruent trials. Distributional analyses showed reduced interference among the fastest responses and larger RCE in middle quantiles. Additionally, increased errors for both congruent and incongruent conditions were observed in the fastest responses, with congruent trials showing higher error rates, as previously observed with gaze targets. These findings suggest that the RCE reflects a dynamic interplay between early response capture and inhibitory control, shaped by the visual features of masked stimuli. Critically, they raise the possibility that similar perceptual constraints contribute to the RCE observed with gaze targets, offering a potential non-social mechanism underlying this effect. Our results highlight how visual complexity can modulate automatic activation and control processes, underscoring the value of distributional methods for revealing the temporal dynamics of interference. Author Note: Draft version 2, 11/10/25. This manuscript has not been peer reviewed yet.

The reversed congruency effect (RCE), typically observed with gaze stimuli, reflects slower and less accurate responses to congruent than incongruent trials, in contrast to the standard congruency effect (SCE; faster for congruent than incongruent trials) observed with arrows. This phenomenon has been interpreted as evidence that gaze engages unique social and perceptual mechanisms. The present study examined whether the RCE could also be elicited with non-social stimuli designed to mimic the asymmetric contrast between pupil and sclera. Across two preregistered experiments, we manipulated the contrast polarity of arrow targets: in gaze-similar arrows, a darker arrowhead and lighter tail paralleled the pupil-sclera configuration, whereas in gaze-opposite arrows this relation was reversed. We also varied perceptual context by embedding stimuli in complex backgrounds. Both manipulations influenced response speed and accuracy, eliciting the SCE, with complex backgrounds producing slower, less accurate performance and reduced SCEs. Distributional analyses further revealed modulations of early response dynamics but no evidence of an RCE. Target-specific effects also emerged, with gaze-similar arrows harder to process yet eliciting smaller SCEs than gaze-opposite arrows. These findings suggest that contrast polarity and perceptual complexity alone are insufficient to reproduce gaze-induced RCEs, underscoring the unique role of gaze in spatial conflict resolution.Author note: Draft version 1, 01/10/25. This paper has not been peer reviewed.

This study investigated how social (faces and eyes) and non‐social (arrows) stimuli modulate attentional orienting in a spatial Stroop task, using a distributional approach. Data from 11 studies (N = 705) were analysed through cumulative distribution functions (CDF), delta functions, and polynomial trend analyses. Three models were applied: (1) a reaction time (RT) model comparing social (faces and eyes) vs. non‐social stimuli under congruent and incongruent conditions, (2) a delta model assessing conflict effects across quantiles, and (3) a trend model identifying specific delta function patterns. Non‐social targets produced a standard congruency effect (SCE), with faster responses in congruent trials but no consistent conflict reduction across the distribution. In contrast, social stimuli exhibited a reversed congruency effect (RCE), with faster responses in incongruent trials, emerging from the second quantile onward and minimal conflict among the fastest responses. Social targets exhibited comparable reaction times in the RT model and similar early delta plot patterns, suggesting shared initial perceptual and attentional mechanisms between faces and eyes. However, faces eventually induced a larger RCE, possibly due to their more complex configuration. These findings highlight distinctive patterns between social and non‐social processing in the spatial Stroop task.

Recent studies employing the spatial interference paradigm reveal qualitative differences in congruency effects between gaze and arrow targets. Typically, arrows produce a standard congruency effect (SCE), with faster responses when target direction aligns with its location. Conversely, gaze targets often lead to a reversed congruency effect (RCE), where responses are slower in similar conditions. We explored this dissociation using the Conditional Accuracy Function (CAF) to assess accuracy across reaction time bins. Using a hierarchical linear mixed modelling approach to compare cropped eyes, and full faces as social stimuli, and arrows as non‐social stimuli, we synthesized findings from 11 studies, which led to three distinct models. The results showed that with non‐social targets, incongruent trials exhibited lower accuracy rates in the first bin than in subsequent bins, while congruent trials maintained stable accuracy throughout the distribution. Conversely, social targets revealed a dissociation within the fastest responses; alongside a general reduction in accuracy for both congruency conditions, congruent trials resulted in even lower accuracy rates than incongruent ones. These results suggest with gaze targets that additional information, perhaps social, in addition to the automatic capture by the irrelevant target location, is being processed during the earlier stages of processing.

The literature has shown that eye-gaze and arrow cues elicit quantitatively similar attentional orienting effects. However, a qualitative dissociation between the orienting of attention triggered by these two types of stimuli has been observed when a specific methodology is used. It has been found that, while eye-gaze retains attention to the specific looked-at location, arrows spread it towards broader parts of the environment. However, to date, it is still unclear whether this dissociation may be directly related to individual differences in personal attributes that are usually associated with higher or lower social skills. The aim of the present study was to explore whether the eye-gaze and arrow orienting effects differed among observers according to their sex, gender-role, academic background and/or social skills. Although the expected arrow–gaze dissociation was observed, and the expected relationship among the measured personal attributes were observed, they did not correlate to each other. Our results argue against the idea that the differences between eye-gaze and arrows orienting effects may be associated with individual differences in social cognition.

Social and nonsocial directional stimuli (such as gaze and arrows, respectively) share their ability to trigger attentional processes, although the issue of whether social stimuli generate other additional (and unique) attentional effects is still under debate. In this study, we used the spatial interference paradigm to explore, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, shared and dissociable brain activations produced by gaze and arrows. Results showed a common set of regions (right parieto-temporo-occipital) similarly involved in conflict resolution for gaze and arrows stimuli, which showed stronger co-activation for incongruent than congruent trials. The frontal eye field showed stronger functional connectivity with occipital regions for congruent as compared with incongruent trials, and this effect was enhanced for gaze as compared with arrow stimuli in the right hemisphere. Moreover, spatial interference produced by incongruent (as compared with congruent) arrows was associated with increased functional coupling between the right frontal eye field and a set of regions in the left hemisphere. This result was not observed for incongruent (as compared with congruent) gaze stimuli. The right frontal eye field also showed greater coupling with left temporo-occipital regions for those conditions in which larger conflict was observed (arrow incongruent vs. gaze incongruent trials, and gaze congruent vs. arrow congruent trials). These findings support the view that social and nonsocial stimuli share some attentional mechanisms, while at the same time highlighting other differential effects. Highlights Attentional orienting triggered by social (gaze) and nonsocial (arrow) cues is comparable. When social and nonsocial stimuli are used as targets, qualitatively different behavioral effects are observed. This study explores the neural bases of shared and dissociable neural mechanisms for social and nonsocial stimuli. Shared mechanisms were found in the functional coupling between right parieto-temporo-occipital regions. Dissociable mechanisms were found in the functional coupling between right frontal eye field and ipsilateral and contralateral occipito-temporal regions.