Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
Institute of Psychology in Education, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany.
Dev Sci. 2024 Nov;27(6):e13546. doi: 10.1111/desc.13546. Epub 2024 Jul 9.
Following eye gaze is fundamental for many social-cognitive abilities, for example, when judging what another agent can or cannot know. While the emergence of gaze following has been thoroughly studied on a group level, we know little about (a) the developmental trajectory beyond infancy and (b) the sources of individual differences. In Study 1, we examined gaze following across the lifespan (N = 478 3- to 19-year-olds from Leipzig, Germany; and N = 240 20- to 80-year-old international, remotely tested adults). We found a steep performance improvement during preschool years, in which children became more precise in locating the attentional focus of an agent. Precision levels then stayed comparably stable throughout adulthood with a minor decline toward old age. In Study 2, we formalized the process of gaze following in a computational cognitive model that allowed us to conceptualize individual differences in a psychologically meaningful way (N = 60 3- to 5-year-olds, 50 adults). According to our model, participants estimate pupil angles with varying levels of precision based on observing the pupil location within the agent's eyes. In Study 3, we empirically tested how gaze following relates to vector following in non-social settings and perspective-taking abilities (N = 102 4- to 5-year-olds). We found that gaze following is associated with both of these abilities but less so with other Theory of Mind tasks. This work illustrates how the combination of reliable measurement instruments and formal theoretical models allows us to explore the in(ter)dependence of core social-cognitive processes in greater detail. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Gaze following develops beyond infancy. The highest precision levels in localizing attentional foci are reached in young adulthood with a slight decrease towards old age. We present a computational model that describes gaze following as a process of estimating pupil angles and the corresponding gaze vectors. The model explains individual differences and recovers signature patterns in the data. To estimate the relation between gaze- and vector following, we designed a non-social vector following task. We found substantial correlations between gaze following and vector following, as well as Level 2 perspective-taking. Other Theory of Mind tasks did not correlate.
跟随目光是许多社会认知能力的基础，例如，在判断另一个主体能够或不能够知道什么的时候。虽然群体水平上已经彻底研究了目光跟随的出现，但我们对以下两个方面知之甚少：（a）婴儿期之后的发展轨迹，以及（b）个体差异的来源。在研究 1 中，我们在整个生命周期内（N=478 名来自德国莱比锡的 3 至 19 岁儿童；N=240 名来自世界各地、远程测试的 20 至 80 岁成年人）考察了目光跟随。我们发现，在学龄前阶段，儿童的表现有了显著提高，他们在定位主体注意力焦点方面变得更加精准。此后，在整个成年期，精度水平保持相对稳定，在老年时略有下降。在研究 2 中，我们在一个计算认知模型中形式化了目光跟随过程，这使我们能够以一种心理上有意义的方式来理解个体差异（N=60 名 3 至 5 岁儿童，50 名成年人）。根据我们的模型，参与者基于观察主体眼睛内的瞳孔位置，以不同的精度水平估计瞳孔角度。在研究 3 中，我们实证检验了目光跟随如何与非社交环境中的向量跟随和换位思考能力相关（N=102 名 4 至 5 岁儿童）。我们发现，目光跟随与这两种能力都相关，但与其他心理理论任务的相关性较小。这项工作说明了如何结合可靠的测量工具和正式的理论模型，使我们能够更详细地探索核心社会认知过程的内在（inter）依赖性。研究亮点：目光跟随在婴儿期之后发展。在年轻成人时期，定位注意力焦点的最高精度水平达到顶峰，随后略有下降。我们提出了一个计算模型，将目光跟随描述为一个估计瞳孔角度和相应的目光向量的过程。该模型解释了个体差异，并从数据中恢复了典型模式。为了估计目光跟随和向量跟随之间的关系，我们设计了一个非社会向量跟随任务。我们发现，目光跟随和向量跟随之间以及二级换位思考之间存在显著相关性。其他心理理论任务没有相关性。
