Social attention in the real world: Theoretical and empirical limits

Abstract

An important mode of human social behavior is face-to-face interaction. Face-to-face interactions consist of various behaviors, such as gaze, speech, facial expressions, and gestures. Researchers interested in the social functions of gaze, also referred to as social attention, have often used eye-tracking to measure where people are looking. In recent years, several researchers have criticized some laboratory procedures used in research on social attention because these procedures are not representative of ‘real world’ social situations. To counter this problem, researchers have advocated that research should be conducted in the real world instead of the laboratory.

This dissertation consists of two parts: a theoretical part and an empirical part. The theoretical part is about the question how and to what extent research conducted in a laboratory is representative of human cognition and behavior in the real world. I analyze the conceptual and historical interpretations of the concept of ecological validity. This concept has often been used to qualify to what extent behavior in a laboratory resembles behavior in the real world.

The empirical part consists of two eye-tracking experiments in which human gaze behavior during face-to-face interactions is investigated, for example, conversations between parents and children. These studies show that some people are eye- and mouth lookers, that parents gaze more at the eyes of their child during conflicting conversations than when parents and children need to collaborate, and that people can experience having a ‘live’ video-interaction with another person when in fact, they are looking at a pre-recorded videoclip.