Social Cognition
Gaze Cueing Task
Also called: gaze cueing paradigm, gaze-cueing task, eye gaze cueing, social cueing task
Measure how attention follows another's gaze: a drawn face looks left or right before a letter appears on either side, scored by how much faster responses are on the side the face looks at.
8-10 minTimed: desktop or laptop with a mouse or trackpad
Free to start: 10 free participants per account, then $0.99 per participant for academic research, or any yearly plan. Preview any test free after you sign up.
- Papers, 2021 to 2025
- 304
- Evidence grade
- C
- Registered clinical studies
- 0
What it measures
Measures how attention follows where a face looks. A line drawing of a face looks left or right, then a letter appears on the side it looks at or on the other side. The gaze does not predict the side, yet responses are usually faster when the letter appears where the face looks.
Constructs
- Social attention
- Gaze following
- Attentional orienting
- Joint attention
Research uses
- Social attention research
- Gaze following studies across development and in clinical groups
- Within-study comparison of social and nonsocial cues
How the paradigm works
The Gaze Cueing Task measures how attention follows where a face looks. Each trial shows a line drawing of a face with blank eyes. After 683 ms pupils appear and look left or right, and then the letter F or T appears to the left or the right of the face, 100, 300, 600 or 1,000 ms after the pupils. Participants press the left or right arrow key for the letter's side, as quickly and accurately as they can. They are told that where the eyes look does not predict where the letter appears, and it does not: the letter appears on the side the face looks at on half of the trials.
More about the paradigm
The task follows Friesen and Kingstone (1998): their face and letter sizes, their four cue-target intervals snapped to whole 60 Hz frames, a blank face and an intertrial interval of 680 ms (683 ms here), and a response window of 2,700 ms. In their side-report condition, responses were 12 to 21 ms faster on the side the face looked at for the three shorter intervals, and the effect was no longer reliable at 1,005 ms. Driver and colleagues (1999) found faster responses on the gazed-at side even when targets were four times as likely on the other side. The standard session runs 16 practice trials with feedback, then 192 test trials. Researchers can set 64 to 384 trials, add neutral trials on which the pupils look straight ahead, and add a second block in which a central arrow replaces the face. Arrows that do not predict the target also shift attention, so the arrow block gives a nonsocial comparison (Frischen, Bayliss and Tipper, 2007).
Scores
- Gaze Cueing Effectms
- Median correct response time when the letter appears on the side the face does not look at, minus the side it looks at, over all intervals.
- Positive when attention follows the gaze
- Gaze Cueing Effect at 100 msms
- The gaze cueing effect when the letter appears 100 ms after the pupils.
- Informational
- Gaze Cueing Effect at 300 msms
- The gaze cueing effect when the letter appears 300 ms after the pupils.
- Informational
- Gaze Cueing Effect at 600 msms
- The gaze cueing effect when the letter appears 600 ms after the pupils.
- Informational
- Gaze Cueing Effect at 1,000 msms
- The gaze cueing effect when the letter appears 1,000 ms after the pupils.
- Informational
- Median Valid RTms
- Median correct response time when the letter appears on the side the face looks at.
- Informational
- Median Invalid RTms
- Median correct response time when the letter appears on the other side.
- Informational
- Gaze Benefitms
- Neutral minus valid median response time, when neutral trials run.
- Informational
- Gaze Costms
- Invalid minus neutral median response time, when neutral trials run.
- Informational
- Accuracy%
- Proportion of gaze trials answered with the letter's side. A missed response counts as an error.
- Informational
- Anticipationscount
- Responses within 100 ms of the letter's onset.
- Informational
- Arrow Cueing Effectms
- The same effect in the arrow block, when it runs.
- Compare with the gaze cueing effect
Use and evidence
304 papers from 2021 to 2025 name this task in their title or abstract, up 2% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 84 of 395 test families in our census. See the counts for every test.
Show the numbers
| Year | Papers |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 73 |
| 2024 | 51 |
| 2023 | 76 |
| 2022 | 58 |
| 2021 | 46 |
| 2020 | 57 |
| 2019 | 61 |
| 2018 | 65 |
| 2017 | 67 |
| 2016 | 48 |
| 2015 | 79 |
| 2014 | 59 |
| 2013 | 63 |
| 2012 | 54 |
| 2011 | 38 |
| 2010 | 59 |
| 2009 | 36 |
| 2008 | 30 |
| 2007 | 22 |
| 2006 | 18 |
| 2005 | 17 |
| 2004 | 16 |
| 2003 | 9 |
| 2002 | 3 |
| 2001 | 1 |
| 2000 | 3 |
Use grade B
300 to 999 papers from 2021 to 2025.
Evidence grade C
At least 2 test-retest papers, 30 reliability or validity papers or 3 registered clinical studies.
- Papers on test-retest reliability
- 4
- Papers on reliability or validity
- 92
- Registered clinical studies using it as an outcome
- 0
How the grades work
Use: A is 1,000 or more papers from 2021 to 2025, B 300 to 999, C 100 to 299, D 30 to 99 and E fewer than 30. Evidence: A means at least 25 papers report its test-retest reliability and at least 25 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome; B, at least 8 test-retest papers, and either 5 registered clinical studies or 150 reliability or validity papers; C, at least 2 test-retest papers, 30 reliability or validity papers or 3 registered clinical studies; D, little published measurement evidence found. The counts measure use. They include every paper that names the task in its title or abstract. Grades describe the published research on this task, not ConductCognition's version of it.
Source: ConductCognition test census 0.14.0, counted 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
Task design
The trial sequence as the test runs in ConductCognition.
- Display
- A line drawing of a face at the center; the letter F or T appears to its left or right. Sizes follow Friesen and Kingstone (1998).
- Trial
- A blank screen for 683 ms, the face with blank eyes for 683 ms, then pupils that look left or right.
- Intervals
- The letter appears 100, 300, 600 or 1,000 ms after the pupils, each equally often: the source's 105, 300, 600 and 1,005 ms on whole 60 Hz frames.
- Response
- The face and the letter stay until a response or 2,700 ms. Left and right arrow keys for the letter's side.
- Trial mix
- Gaze direction, letter side, letter and interval are crossed evenly, so the face looks toward the letter on half the trials. 192 trials (standard; 64 to 384), with a break every 64.
- Practice
- 16 trials with feedback.
- Options
- Neutral trials, on which the pupils look straight ahead on a third of the trials. An arrow block after the face trials, with as many trials and 8 practice trials, in which a central arrow points left or right in place of the face.
Friesen and Kingstone (1998) compared mean response times. This test uses medians of correct responses, which slow responses affect less.
Quality checks
Each session is marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason, before you see its scores.
Scored rows: gaze_cueing_test from the scored run, gaze and arrow blocks, the left or right arrow key for the letter's side (chance 50%, each side on about half the trials) within 2,700 ms of the letter. Below chance invalidates and not above chance is flagged. One key on 90% of answers invalidates when accuracy is not above chance. Missed responses and responses under 100 ms follow the timed-test rule.
Why these rules
Accuracy significantly below chance (one-sided exact test, p < .05) cannot come from guessing; it means the response mapping was reversed or the task was not followed (Slick, Sherman and Iverson 1999 treat below-chance forced-choice performance as definite response bias). Chance-level accuracy can be a real result in impaired participants, so it is only flagged. One option on at least 90% of answered trials, when the correct options are balanced and accuracy is not above chance, means the answers did not depend on the items (the task counterpart of long-string responding in surveys; Curran 2016). Missed responses and responses under 100 ms keep the platform's timed-test rule: more than max(3, 25%) missed responses or more than max(2, 20%) responses under 100 ms invalidate, and any is flagged. A response under 100 ms cannot be a reaction to the stimulus.
No percentile. Scores and quality flags only.
Running this test
Settings you can change
| Setting | Standard | Allowed |
|---|---|---|
| Trials | 192 | 64 to 384 |
| Neutral trials | Off | On or off |
| Add an arrow block | Off | On or off |
Yearly plans can change settings within these limits. Free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Need a setting this test does not have?
Devices and languages
- Timed test: participants need a desktop or laptop with a mouse or trackpad. Participant devices
- Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese.
- Available on: Every plan, including the free plan.
- No percentile. Scores and quality flags only. How norms work
- Recruiting online? See the setup guides for Prolific, Sona Systems, CloudResearch Connect and Qualtrics.
Cite and describe
Participants completed the Gaze Cueing Task in a web browser (ConductCognition task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0; Friesen CK, Kingstone A, 1998; Driver J, Davis G, Ricciardelli P, Kidd P, Maxwell E, Baron-Cohen S, 1999), with the standard settings (trials: 192; neutral trials: Off; add an arrow block: Off). The main score was gaze cueing effect (median correct response time when the letter appears on the side the face does not look at, minus the side it looks at, over all intervals).
ConductCognition versions: task version 1.0.0, scoring version 1.0.0. Every export records the versions each session used, for a methods section.
- Friesen, C. K., & Kingstone, A. (1998). The eyes have it! Reflexive orienting is triggered by nonpredictive gaze. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 5(3), 490-495. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03208827The face, the intervals and the timing.
- Driver, J., Davis, G., Ricciardelli, P., Kidd, P., Maxwell, E., & Baron-Cohen, S. (1999). Gaze perception triggers reflexive visuospatial orienting. Visual Cognition, 6(5), 509-540. https://doi.org/10.1080/135062899394920
- Frischen, A., Bayliss, A. P., & Tipper, S. P. (2007). Gaze cueing of attention: Visual attention, social cognition, and individual differences. Psychological Bulletin, 133(4), 694-724. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.4.694Review, including comparisons with arrows.
Source papers
- Friesen and Kingstone (1998): the face, the intervals and the timing. Frischen, Bayliss and Tipper (2007): a review of gaze cueing, including comparisons with arrows.Paradigm source, Adults
Questions
How long does the Gaze Cueing Task take?
About 8 to 10 minutes, as listed in the test library.
What device does a participant need?
Timed test: participants need a desktop or laptop with a mouse or trackpad. The browser must be Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
What scores does it produce?
Gaze Cueing Effect, Gaze Cueing Effect at 100 ms, Gaze Cueing Effect at 300 ms, Gaze Cueing Effect at 600 ms, Gaze Cueing Effect at 1,000 ms, Median Valid RT, Median Invalid RT, Gaze Benefit, Gaze Cost, Accuracy, Anticipations and Arrow Cueing Effect. Each session is also marked valid, needs review or invalid, with the reason.
How widely is the Gaze Cueing Task used in research?
304 papers from 2021 to 2025 name it in their title or abstract, up 2% compared with 2016 to 2020. That ranks it 84 of 395 test families in the ConductCognition test census (use grade B). Source: ConductCognition test census 0.14.0, counted 31 October 2026 from OpenAlex and ClinicalTrials.gov.
How much reliability evidence does the Gaze Cueing Task have?
In the published research, 4 papers report its test-retest reliability and 0 registered clinical studies use it as an outcome (evidence grade C in the ConductCognition test census).
Does it report a percentile?
No. Scores and quality flags only.
Which settings can a researcher change?
Trials (64 to 384), neutral trials (On or off) and add an arrow block (On or off). Settings can be changed on yearly plans; free and pay-as-you-go studies use the standard settings.
Which languages can participants use?
Participants can take this test in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified) and Japanese. English is on every plan, and the other languages come with yearly plans. Have a native speaker read the machine-translated text before launch.
Is this a clinical test?
No. ConductCognition is for research use only. It runs, scores and exports the test; clinical interpretation is outside the platform.
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