Abstract

In this experiment we investigated the role of facial expressions and target-faces of different emotional valence on gaze-mediated orienting of attention. A centrally-displayed White cueface shifted gaze rightwards or leftwards and its emotional expression dynamically became either fearful or happy. After either 225 or 525 ms, a target-face depicting a White or a Black individual appeared. The results showed a gaze cueing effect in response to fearful and happy faces at the 225-ms and 525-ms interval respectively. This pattern seems to highlight the different adaptive value of the two emotional expressions.