The temporal context of eye contact influences perceptions of communicative intent

This study examined the perceptual dynamics that influence the evaluation of eye contact as a communicative display. Participants (n = 137) completed a task where they decided if agents were inspecting or requesting one of three objects. Each agent shifted its gaze three times per trial, with the presence, frequency and sequence of eye contact displays manipulated across six conditions. We found significant differences between all gaze conditions. Participants were most likely, and fastest, to perceive a request when eye contact occurred between two averted gaze shifts towards the same object. Findings suggest that the relative temporal context of eye contact and averted gaze, rather than eye contact frequency or recency, shapes its communicative potency. Commensurate effects were observed when participants completed the task with agents that appeared as humans or a humanoid robot, indicating that gaze evaluations are broadly tuned across a range of social stimuli. Our findings advance the field of gaze perception research beyond paradigms that examine singular, salient and static gaze cues and inform how signals of communicative intent can be optimally engineered in the gaze behaviours of artificial agents (e.g. robots) to promote natural and intuitive social interactions.