scholarly journals An experimental investigation into the use of eye-contact in social interactions in women in the acute and recovered stages of anorexia nervosa

2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Harrison ◽  
Stephanie V. Watterson ◽  
Samuel D. Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Eye Contact

Seeing things differently: An experimental investigation of social cognition and interpersonal behavior in anorexia nervosa

2015 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 499-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suman Ambwani ◽  
Kathy R. Berenson ◽  
Lea Simms ◽  
Amanda Li ◽  
Freya Corfield ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Social Cognition ◽  
Interpersonal Behavior

scholarly journals Human agency beliefs influence behaviour during virtual social interactions

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Caruana ◽  
Dean Spirou ◽  
Jon Brock
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Eye Contact ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Intentional Stance ◽  
Agency Beliefs ◽  
The Impact

In recent years, with the emergence of relatively inexpensive and accessible virtual reality technologies, it is now possible to deliver compelling and realistic simulations of human-to-human interaction. Neuroimaging studies have shown that, when participants believe they are interacting via a virtual interface with another human agent, they show different patterns of brain activity compared to when they know that their virtual partner is computer-controlled. The suggestion is that users adopt an “intentional stance” by attributing mental states to their virtual partner. However, it remains unclear how beliefs in the agency of a virtual partner influence participants’ behaviour and subjective experience of the interaction. We investigated this issue in the context of a cooperative “joint attention” game in which participants interacted via an eye tracker with a virtual onscreen partner, directing each other’s eye gaze to different screen locations. Half of the participants were correctly informed that their partner was controlled by a computer algorithm (“Computer” condition). The other half were misled into believing that the virtual character was controlled by a second participant in another room (“Human” condition). Those in the “Human” condition were slower to make eye contact with their partner and more likely to try and guide their partner before they had established mutual eye contact than participants in the “Computer” condition. They also responded more rapidly when their partner was guiding them, although the same effect was also found for a control condition in which they responded to an arrow cue. Results confirm the influence of human agency beliefs on behaviour in this virtual social interaction context. They further suggest that researchers and developers attempting to simulate social interactions should consider the impact of agency beliefs on user experience in other social contexts, and their effect on the achievement of the application’s goals.

Adolescent Safety Behaviors and Social Anxiety: Links to Psychosocial Impairments and Functioning with Unfamiliar Peer Confederates

2021 ◽  
pp. 014544552110540
Author(s):  
Hide Okuno ◽  
Taylor Rezeppa ◽  
Tabitha Raskin ◽  
Andres De Los Reyes
Keyword(s):  
Social Skills ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Eye Contact ◽  
Safety Behaviors ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Research Personnel ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Social Skills Deficits ◽  
Multiple Domains

Socially anxious adolescents often endure anxiety-provoking situations using safety behaviors: strategies for minimizing in-the-moment distress (e.g., avoiding eye contact, rehearsing statements before entering a conversation). Studies linking safety behaviors to impaired functioning have largely focused on adults. In a sample of one hundred thirty-four 14 to 15 year-old adolescents, we tested whether levels of safety behaviors among socially anxious adolescents relate to multiple domains of impaired functioning. Adolescents, parents, and research personnel completed survey measures of safety behaviors and social anxiety, adolescents and parents reported about adolescents’ evaluative fears and psychosocial impairments, and adolescents participated in a set of tasks designed to simulate social interactions with same-age, unfamiliar peers. Relative to other adolescents in the sample, adolescents high on both safety behaviors and social anxiety displayed greater psychosocial impairments, evaluative fears, and observed social skills deficits within social interactions. These findings have important implications for assessing and treating adolescent social anxiety.

scholarly journals Neural Correlates of Theory of Mind Are Preserved in Young Women With Anorexia Nervosa

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Leslie ◽  
Daniel Halls ◽  
Jenni Leppanen ◽  
Felicity Sedgewick ◽  
Katherine Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Neural Activation ◽  
Neural Basis

People with anorexia nervosa (AN) commonly exhibit social difficulties, which may be related to problems with understanding the perspectives of others, commonly known as Theory of Mind (ToM) processing. However, there is a dearth of literature investigating the neural basis of these differences in ToM and at what age they emerge. This study aimed to test for differences in the neural correlates of ToM processes in young women with AN, and young women weight-restored (WR) from AN, as compared to healthy control participants (HC). Based on previous findings in AN, we hypothesized that young women with current or prior AN, as compared to HCs, would exhibit a reduced neural response in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), the inferior frontal gyrus, and the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) whilst completing a ToM task. We recruited 73 young women with AN, 45 WR young women, and 70 young women without a history of AN to take part in the current study. Whilst undergoing a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan, participants completed the Frith-Happé task, which is a commonly used measure of ToM with demonstrated reliability and validity in adult populations. In this task, participants viewed the movements of triangles, which depicted either action movements, simple interactions, or complex social interactions. Viewing trials with more complex social interactions in the Frith-Happé task was associated with increased brain activation in regions including the right TPJ, the bilateral mPFC, the cerebellum, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. There were no group differences in neural activation in response to the ToM contrast. Overall, these results suggest that the neural basis of spontaneous mentalizing is preserved in most young women with AN.

Eye contact in children's social interactions: What is normal behaviour?

2000 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Arnold ◽  
Randye J Semple ◽  
Ivan Beale ◽  
Claire M Fletcher-Flinn
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Eye Contact ◽  
Normal Behaviour

scholarly journals Current and previous eating practices among women recovered from anorexia nervosa: a qualitative approach

2013 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 275-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Dimitrov Ulian ◽  
Ramiro Fernandez Unsain ◽  
Priscila de Morais Sato ◽  
Patrícia da Rocha Pereira ◽  
Isis de Carvalho Stelmo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Anorexia Nervosa ◽  
Eating Disorder ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Eating Competence ◽  
The One ◽  
Eating Practices

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to analyze qualitatively how women, who have recovered from anorexia nervosa, perceive and describe their current eating practices, as well as the ones developed during the eating disorder period. METHODS: Seven women were interviewed individually with the objective of investigating their eating practices, transition phases and all relevant aspects that somewhat contributed to the habit-forming; experiences, feelings and perceptions related to mealtime and the influence that food has had over the present subjects' life. The interviews were analyzed by the discourse of the collective subject method. RESULTS: The results brought up the following topics: a) control; b) concerns and feelings; c) deprivation d) beauty dictatorship; e) eating competence; f) importance of food; g) food cacophony. CONCLUSIONS: What stands out is a multiplicity of eating practices, which during the eating disorder were similar to and characterized by restriction; however, after recovery, part of the subjects seem to have developed a higher eating competence, whereas others show a practice similar to the one acquired during the anorexia nervosa, such as the difficulty in realizing when they are satisfied and a feeling of discomfort when facing social interactions.

Reacting to Autistic Children: The Danger of Trying Too Hard

1975 ◽  
Vol 127 (6) ◽  
pp. 526-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Richer ◽  
Barry Richards
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Eye Contact ◽  
Avoidance Behaviour ◽  
Video Tape ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Look Back ◽  
Natural Response

SummaryRecent work has revealed that autistic children's predominating tendency to avoid social interactions is actually enhanced by the ‘friendly’ approaches of others. In this study it was recorded on video-tape how eight autistic children reacted to four styles of adult behaviour. The adult reacted to the child's looks at her by (i) smiling, (ii) gaze averting, (iii) gaze averting plus other ‘timid’ behaviours and (iv) doing nothing except continuing to look back. For this last condition—when the adult did not react—it was found that autistic children showed less avoidance behaviour after eye contact and spent more time within one metre of the adult. The implications for treatment are contrary to much modern practice and to what seems to be adults' ‘natural’ response. Reactivity by others appears to enhance the child's avoidance, and it is suggested that adults should be circumspect in the degree of sociability with which they respond to autistic children.

scholarly journals Making sense of human interaction benefits from communicative cues

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Kourtis ◽  
Pierre Jacob ◽  
Natalie Sebanz ◽  
Dan Sperber ◽  
Günther Knoblich
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Eye Contact ◽  
Attentional Focus ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Pointing Gestures ◽  
Stage Process ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Pointing Gesture

Abstract We investigated whether communicative cues help observers to make sense of human interaction. We recorded EEG from an observer monitoring two individuals who were occasionally communicating with each other via either mutual eye contact and/or pointing gestures, and then jointly attending to the same object or attending to different objects that were placed on a table in front of them. The analyses were focussed on the processing of the interaction outcome (i.e. presence or absence of joint attention) and showed that its interpretation is a two-stage process, as reflected in the N300 and the N400 potentials. The N300 amplitude was reduced when the two individuals shared their focus of attention, which indicates the operation of a cognitive process that involves the relatively fast identification and evaluation of actor–object relationships. On the other hand, the N400 was insensitive to the sharing or distribution of the two individuals’ attentional focus. Interestingly, the N400 was reduced when the interaction outcome was preceded either by mutual eye contact or by a perceived pointing gesture. This shows that observation of communication “opens up” the mind to a wider range of action possibilities and thereby helps to interpret unusual outcomes of social interactions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document