Dipartimento di Psicologia dello Sviluppo e della Socializzazione, Università degli Studi di Padova, 35131, Padua, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jul 4;13(1):10829. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-37875-7.
Eye-gaze stimuli can elicit orienting of attention in an observer, a phenomenon known as gaze cueing of attention. Here, we explored whether gaze cueing can be shaped by the linguistic identity of the cueing face. In two experiments, participants were first familiarized with different faces together with auditory sentences. Half of the sentences were associated with the native language of the participants (Italian) and the other half with an unknown language (Albanian and Basque, in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively). In a second phase, participants performed a gaze-cueing task. In a third recognition phase, the auditory sentences were presented again, and participants were required to decide which face uttered each sentence. Results indicated that participants were more likely to confuse faces from the same language category than from the other language category. Results of the gaze-cueing task revealed a greater gaze-cueing effect for faces associated with the native vs. unknown language. Critically, this difference emerged only in Experiment 1, which may reflect differences in social status between the two language groups. Our findings revealed the impact of language as a social cue on the gaze-cueing effect, suggesting that social attention is sensitive to the language of our interlocutors.
眼动刺激可以引起观察者的注意力定向，这种现象被称为注视线索引导注意。在这里，我们探讨了注视线索是否可以通过提示面孔的语言身份来塑造。在两项实验中，参与者首先熟悉不同的面孔和听觉句子。一半的句子与参与者的母语（意大利语）相关，另一半与未知语言（阿尔巴尼亚语和巴斯克语，分别在实验 1 和实验 2 中）相关。在第二阶段，参与者执行注视线索任务。在第三个识别阶段，再次呈现听觉句子，要求参与者决定哪个面孔说出每个句子。结果表明，参与者更容易混淆来自同一语言类别的面孔，而不是来自其他语言类别的面孔。注视线索任务的结果显示，与母语相关的面孔比与未知语言相关的面孔的注视线索效应更大。至关重要的是，这种差异仅在实验 1 中出现，这可能反映了两种语言群体之间社会地位的差异。我们的研究结果揭示了语言作为社会线索对视线索效应的影响，表明社会注意力对我们对话者的语言敏感。
