UNCORRECTED PROOF 2 Interactions between the processing of gaze direction and 3 facial expression 4 Tzvi Ganel a, * , Yonatan Goshen-Gottstein b , Melvyn Goodale a 5 a Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ont., Canada N6A 5C2 6 b Tel-Aviv University, Canada Received 15 January 2004; received in revised form 23 June 2004 9 Abstract 10 In this article, we explored the relationship between the processing of facial expression and the processing of gaze direction. In 11 Experiment 1, participants were unable to ignore gaze while classifying expression—or to ignore expression while classifying gaze. 12 This suggests that the processing of expression and the processing of gaze are interdependent. In Experiment 2, the faces were 13 inverted to isolate configural from part-based contributions to this interdependence. Inversion had a striking effect on expression 14 judgments, which could now be processed independently of gaze, but not on gaze judgments, which were still influenced by expres- 15 sion, even when photos that contained only the eye region of faces were presented (Experiment 4). In Experiment 3 the processing of 16 expression was found to be sensitive to even small variations in the direction of gaze. These results suggest that the processing under- 17 lying judgments of expression is configural and entails an obligatory computation of gaze direction. Judgments of gaze direction, 18 however, are carried out in a part-based manner using local features around the eyes and are insensitive to the configural aspects 19 of facial processing. 20 Ó 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 21 Keywords: Face perception; Selective attention; Gaze discrimination; Facial expression; Image processing 22 23 1. Introduction 24 Judging the emotion expressed on other peopleÕs 25 faces is a central aspect of our everyday social interac- 26 tions. After all, it is the ability to interpret what other 27 people feel that determines our success in both personal 28 and professional relationships. It is probably for this 29 reason that the processing of facial expression has re- 30 ceived much more attention in psychological research 31 over the last few decades than that of other socially rel- 32 evant facial dimensions, such as sex (e.g., Goshen-Gott- 33 stein & Ganel, 2000; Henson et al., 2003) or the 34 direction of gaze (Sinha, 2000). 35 In recent years, however, growing neurological and 36 psychological research has focused on the processing 37 of other facial dimensions, and in particular, on the 38 processing of the direction of gaze. Computing the direc- 39 tion of gaze, like computing expression, is elementary to 40 social interactions in that it provides information about 41 where other people direct their attention. Because a per- 42 son can express any particular emotion while looking at 43 any point in space, it is logically possible that perceivers 44 process expression and gaze direction independently of 45 one another. Still, the social relevance of a personÕs fa- 46 cial expression can be completely understood only if 47 we also know towards whom (or where) that expression 48 is being directed. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume 49 that it is the combined output from processing of expres- 50 sion and gaze that determines the way in which we inter- 51 pret expression in its social context. 0042-6989/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2004.06.025 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 519 661 2111x88240. E-mail address: tganel@uwo.ca (T. Ganel). www.elsevier.com/locate/visres Vision Research xxx (2004) xxx–xxx VR 4193 No. of Pages 10, DTD = 5.0.1 20 November 2004 Disk Used ARTICLE IN PRESS