Abstract
Self-range is defined as a range of gaze direction of a looker within which the person being looked at feels like he/she is actually being looked at. We have been studying gaze perception in laboratories by using lookers' picture displayed on a CRT screen. In this study, we used life-size pictures printed on paper and examined if similar results can be obtained in more relaxed settings. In addition, we administered several personality inventory, and examined correlations between self-range and the indices. The stimuli were life-sized full-color pictures of four young people with gaze shifted in 11 steps between 15 deg to the right and to the left from the center. Participants were asked to judge whether the stimulus person was looking at them. The pictures were presented at a distance of 57 cm in a randomized order. The self-ranges obtained were quite similar to those from past studies with CRTs. The estimated self-range ranged between 5–10 degs, and the average was approximately 8 deg. The correlations between the self-range and subscales of personality inventory revealed intriguing tendencies. The self-range had negative correlations to depressiveness and feeling of inferiority for males. However, for females, the self-range had positive correlation to self-display. The present results indicated that the results from relaxed settings with paper stimuli are quite reliable. This, together with some relations to personality indices obtained in this study opened up a possibilities of extending gaze perception studies into clinical, developmental and educational environments.
KM & YT were supported by a grant from JSPS.