Effects of conversation content on viewing dyadic conversations

People typically follow conversations closely with their gaze. We asked whether this viewing is influenced by what is actually said in the conversation and by the viewer’s psychological condition. We recorded the eye movements of healthy (N = 16) and depressed (N = 25) participants while they were v...

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Main Authors: Jarkko Hautala, Otto Loberg, Jari K Hietanen, Lauri Nummenmaa, Piia Astikainen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2016-11-01
Series:Journal of Eye Movement Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/2921
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author Jarkko Hautala
Otto Loberg
Jari K Hietanen
Lauri Nummenmaa
Piia Astikainen
author_facet Jarkko Hautala
Otto Loberg
Jari K Hietanen
Lauri Nummenmaa
Piia Astikainen
author_sort Jarkko Hautala
collection DOAJ
description People typically follow conversations closely with their gaze. We asked whether this viewing is influenced by what is actually said in the conversation and by the viewer’s psychological condition. We recorded the eye movements of healthy (N = 16) and depressed (N = 25) participants while they were viewing video clips. Each video showed two people, each speaking one line of dialogue about socio-emotionally important (i.e., personal) or unimportant topics (matter-of-fact). Between the spoken lines, the viewers made more saccadic shifts between the discussants, and looked more at the second speaker, in personal vs. matter-of-fact conversations. Higher depression scores were correlated with less looking at the currently speaking discussant. We conclude that subtle social attention dynamics can be detected from eye movements and that these dynamics are sensitive to the observer’s psychological condition, such as depression.
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institution OA Journals
issn 1995-8692
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publishDate 2016-11-01
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series Journal of Eye Movement Research
spelling doaj-art-3f47397574be475ab5fdf7a51616febb2025-08-20T01:51:07ZengMDPI AGJournal of Eye Movement Research1995-86922016-11-019710.16910/jemr.9.7.5Effects of conversation content on viewing dyadic conversationsJarkko Hautala0Otto LobergJari K HietanenLauri NummenmaaPiia AstikainenUniversity of JyväskyläPeople typically follow conversations closely with their gaze. We asked whether this viewing is influenced by what is actually said in the conversation and by the viewer’s psychological condition. We recorded the eye movements of healthy (N = 16) and depressed (N = 25) participants while they were viewing video clips. Each video showed two people, each speaking one line of dialogue about socio-emotionally important (i.e., personal) or unimportant topics (matter-of-fact). Between the spoken lines, the viewers made more saccadic shifts between the discussants, and looked more at the second speaker, in personal vs. matter-of-fact conversations. Higher depression scores were correlated with less looking at the currently speaking discussant. We conclude that subtle social attention dynamics can be detected from eye movements and that these dynamics are sensitive to the observer’s psychological condition, such as depression.https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/2921eye movementsocial influencesattentionindividual differencessocial attentiondepression
spellingShingle Jarkko Hautala
Otto Loberg
Jari K Hietanen
Lauri Nummenmaa
Piia Astikainen
Effects of conversation content on viewing dyadic conversations
Journal of Eye Movement Research
eye movement
social influences
attention
individual differences
social attention
depression
title Effects of conversation content on viewing dyadic conversations
title_full Effects of conversation content on viewing dyadic conversations
title_fullStr Effects of conversation content on viewing dyadic conversations
title_full_unstemmed Effects of conversation content on viewing dyadic conversations
title_short Effects of conversation content on viewing dyadic conversations
title_sort effects of conversation content on viewing dyadic conversations
topic eye movement
social influences
attention
individual differences
social attention
depression
url https://bop.unibe.ch/JEMR/article/view/2921
work_keys_str_mv AT jarkkohautala effectsofconversationcontentonviewingdyadicconversations
AT ottoloberg effectsofconversationcontentonviewingdyadicconversations
AT jarikhietanen effectsofconversationcontentonviewingdyadicconversations
AT laurinummenmaa effectsofconversationcontentonviewingdyadicconversations
AT piiaastikainen effectsofconversationcontentonviewingdyadicconversations