2003 年 22 巻 1 号 p. 33-34
We investigated whether the direct gaze of another person captures attention and delays attentional disengagement from a face in an experimental situation. The participants were required to fixate on the centrally presented face with varying gaze direction and required speeded detection of the peripherally presented target. The results revealed that target detection was delayed in a direct gaze condition but not in an averted gaze or with a closed eyes condition. This effect, however, disappeared when a temporal gap was inserted between the offset of the central face and the onset of the peripheral target, suggesting a contribution of an attentional and/or oculomotor disengagement for a delayed response following a direct gaze. Moreover, a direct gaze made an effect only with a stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) of 500ms and disappeared with an SOA of 1,200ms. This result implied that the effect of a direct gaze is transient.