Previous research has shown that social and symbolic cues guide attention in distinct ways, with eyes often directing attention to locations and arrows to objects. Our lab builds on this work by exploring how these effects depend on characteristics of the cue and the observer, including trustworthiness, social context, and whether the cue comes from a human or a robot. In collaboration with the Human-Robot Interaction Lab, we are investigating how people respond to gaze cues from robots compared to human faces and arrows, and how contextual factors such as cooperation or competition shape these responses. This line of research seeks to deepen our understanding of how people process and interpret social and symbolic signals in their environment, from both humans and artificial agents.
(* indicates undergraduate collaborator)
Rafailova*, P., Malikova*, A., Ingwu*, J., Wintjen*, R. & Hutcheon, T. G. (in press). Face like cues direct attention more narrowly than arrows. Cognitive Processing (link).
Hutcheon, T. G., McMahon*, H., Retzloff*, C., Samat*, A., & Tinker*, C. (2023). The attractiveness of face cues does not modulate the gaze cuing effect. Visual Cognition, 31(9), 655-670. (link)
(* indicates undergraduate collaborator)
Bishen*, P., & Hutcheon, T. G. (2025, October). Perceptual Depth Modulates Gaze Cueing: Evidence from the Ponzo Illusion. Poster presented at the Bard Summer Research Institute Poster Session. Annandale-on-Hudson, NY.
Rafailova*, P., Malikova*, A., Wintjen*, R. Law, T., & Hutcheon, T. G. (2025, March). Robot eye-gaze directs attention in an object-based manner. Poster presented at the 95th annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, New York, NY. (Poster)
Samat*, A., Rafailova*, P., & Hutcheon, T. G. (2025, March) Teamwork or competition: instructional context modulates attention in the gaze-cueing paradigm. Poster presented at the 95th annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, New York, NY. (Poster)
Malikova*, A., Ingwu*, J., Rafailova*, P., Wintjen*, R., & Hutcheon, T.G. (2024, October). Orienting of Attention is Location-Based for both Arrows and Eye-Gaze Cues. Poster presented at the Bard Summer Research Institute Poster Session. Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. (Poster)
Retzloff*, C., David*, A., Ingwu*, J., Meselsohn*, N., Kaplan, A., & Hutcheon, T. G. (2024, March). Gender differences in the use of social and non-social spatial cues. Poster presented at the 95th annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Philadelphia, PA. (Poster)
McMahon*, H., Retzloff*, C., Samat*, A., Tinker*, C., & Hutcheon, T.G. (2023, October). The Attractiveness of Face Cues does not Modulate the Gaze Cuing Effect. Poster presented at the Bard Summer Research Institute Poster Session. Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. (Poster)
Bard Attention and Performance Lab