ABSTRACT

People spontaneously attend where others are looking. Recently, it has been debated whether such orienting behaviour is supported by domain-general attentional processes, that involve reading the cues’ directional properties, or by processes that involve attributing mental states to agents. In this Opinion, we summarize key evidence for each position and argue that instead of favouring one or the other view, the available data point to an integrated framework in which the attribution of mental states and the operation of domain-general attentional processes both contribute to social orienting. In addition to providing a novel perspective, this view opens several fruitful future research avenues aimed at understanding how the two processes act together to influence cognitions and behaviour.

摘要

人们自发参加其他人正在看的地方。最近，人们争论了这种定向行为是由涉及领域的注意过程（包括阅读线索的方向性）还是涉及将心理状态归因于代理的过程所支持的。在本《意见》中，我们总结了每个立场的关键证据，并指出，可用数据并非支持一个或另一个观点，而是指向一个集成的框架，在该框架中，精神状态的归因和领域一般性注意过程的运行都有助于社会导向。除了提供新颖的观点外，这种观点还开辟了未来富有成果的研究途径，旨在了解这两个过程如何共同作用以影响认知和行为。