CogSem

 
During the current worldwide pandemic, in which virtual forms of communication have become more socially acceptable than in-person interactions, it is important to recognize and explore the differences in how social attention manifests across these two contexts. We investigated social attention in a virtual, as well as a face-to-face conversation, along with collecting a baseline lab measure of social attention. Social attention during the conversations was operationalized as the proportion of time participants spent looking at their conversation partner either on-screen (virtual setting) or in-person (real setting). In the computer task, social attention was operationalized by contrasting speed-of-responding for gazed-at versus not gazed-at targets, with faster responses for gazed-at targets indicating social attention. First, our data replicate past studies, with higher than chance level looking at faces during both conversations and intact social attention in the computer task. When comparing social attention across different goals, we found a negative correlation between gaze to the head in the virtual conversation and baseline social attention, suggesting that attention differs based on the task at hand. When comparing gaze behaviour across conversations, our preliminary findings indicate no relationship between the proportion of time spent looking at the other person across these two contexts. Together, our results suggest that social attention does indeed differ across social contexts. It may not be that surprising, therefore, that in-person interactions have been greatly missed!

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Upcoming Talk:

YanFei Song

Department of Psychology

University of Alberta

October 16th

2020

3:00-4:00 pm

Zoom Meeting
(details will be sent to the CogSem mailing list)


 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Does social attention manifest similarly across virtual and in-person settings?