Can Monetary Reward Modulate Social Attention?

Emanuele Lo Gerfo,Alessandra Vergallito,Jacopo De Angelis,Francesco Bossi,Paola Ricciardelli,Leonor Josefina Romero Lauro

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02213

Emanuele Lo Gerfo, Alessandra Vergallito + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02213

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Abstract

Selective visual attention is a primary cognitive function, which allows the selection of the most relevant stimuli in the environment by prioritizing their processing. Several studies showed that this process can be influenced by both social signals, such as gaze direction (i.e., the Gaze Cueing Effect, GCE) and by the motivational valence of gratifying stimuli, such as monetary rewards. The aim of this study was to explore whether GCE could be modulated by a monetary reward. To this end, we created an experiment in which participants performed a gaze cuing task before and after an implicit learning task aiming to induce an association between gaze direction and monetary reward (experimental condition), or after a perceptual task (control condition). Statistical analyses were conducted following both a frequentist and a Bayesian approach. Results supported previous findings showing the presence of the GCE, i.e., faster responses in congruent trials when the target appeared in the gazed-at location. Interestingly, our results did not reveal significant differences among the conditions. Therefore, contrary to what was reported by previous attentional orienting studies with non-social stimuli, monetary reward does not seem to be able to modulate (or interfere with) the orienting of attention mediated by gaze direction as measured by the GCE. Taken together our results suggest that social signals such as gaze direction have a greater impact than monetary reward in orienting selective attention.

Highlights

Selective attention is a primary cognitive process, which allows the selection of the most relevant stimuli in the environment by prioritizing their processing (Desimone and Duncan, 1995; Pashler, 1998; Reynolds and Chelazzi, 2004)
Post hoc comparisons (Bonferroni-corrected) performed on the main effect of condition highlighted that the participants assigned to the control condition had shorter reaction times (RTs) than the participants assigned to conditions A and B, while condition A and B did not differ from each other (t = −0.485, p > 0.999)
ANOVA 7: interaction between spatial side and gaze direction with frequentist approach Results from the seventh analysis demonstrated that the time ∗ side ∗ condition ∗ congruency interaction effect was not statistically significant either for 250-ms stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) [F(2,81) = 0.135, p = 0.874, η2p = 0.003] or for 750-ms SOA s [F(2,80) = 0.647, p = 0.526, η2p = 0.016] (Figure 4)

Summary

Introduction

Selective attention is a primary cognitive process, which allows the selection of the most relevant stimuli in the environment by prioritizing their processing (Desimone and Duncan, 1995; Pashler, 1998; Reynolds and Chelazzi, 2004). Namely the Monetary Reward and Gaze Cueing Effect tendency to attend the same object that another person is looking at (Frishen et al, 2007), has received much consideration by scholars This attentional orientation, specific to humans and other primates, has been defined “joint attention” (Bruner, 1983) and emerges in children starting from 2 months (Maurer, 1985; Baron-Cohen, 1994). Following another person’s gaze toward specific regions of the environment provides the observer with considerable information, both in terms of the saliency of the co-attended stimuli and providing cues on the looker’s mental states. This ability has a strong adaptive valence since it can communicate the presence of possible danger or threat (Menzel and Halperin, 1975; Byrne, and Whiten, 1991)

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