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Abstract

In social environments individuals can use their eyes to both process the visual environment and signal information to others. My thesis sought to better understand this dual function of social gaze, and how gaze is interpreted by others. To this end, I established a paradigm in which participants – “hiders” – are eye-tracked while they select boxes on a computer grid with the goal of a future observer (the “seeker”) either being able or unable to identify their selected box. Hiders are told their fixations will or will not be shared with the seeker. When told that their gaze will be shared with others, hiders spontaneously consider both the visual display (via their box selections) and what their gaze may signal to others (via where they look). I also discovered that hiders’ self-reported confidence in task success relates to their ability to execute their communicative strategies. Further, I discovered that the dual function of social gaze is capacity limited. When visual displays increase in complexity individuals will sacrifice taking in information to achieve their communicative goals. I presented animations of hiders’ gaze towards displays to seekers tasked with determining which box the hider had selected. I revealed that seekers consider both the display and a hider's gaze information when determining their hiding location. How this information is interpreted, however, is profoundly affected by whether the seeker believes the hider is being truthful or deceptive. Further, this impact of perceived intent is modulated by autistic traits of the seeker. My thesis demonstrates that balancing the use of one’s eyes for both seeing and signaling is not only a spontaneous behaviour, but that individuals have a metacognitive awareness of this ability and capacity limits. Observers are also sensitive to and integrate intentions, gaze, and the visual environment when interpreting the gaze signals of others.