How do Humans perceive gaze direction

This study investigates whether Your Eye Tracker (YET), a system that predicts gaze direction from brightness contrasts in eye quadrants, operates similarly to human gaze perception, and what this implies for the Cooperative Eye Hypothesis. We recruited 43 participants who estimated gaze direction from facial images in two conditions: an experimental condition where eyes were replaced with YET-quadrants, and a control condition with unmanipulated images. Stimuli were presented at five exposure times (70ms-1000ms). A Bayesian generalized linear multi-level model analyzed gaze perception accuracy. Participants could detect gaze direction from manipulated images, but with significantly higher deviation than in the control condition. Gaze perception was consistently higher in the experimental condition from 140ms onwards. These results suggest humans can perceive gaze direction from the 2x2 quadrants, though with lower accuracy than from unmanipulated faces. Deviation was significantly lower from 140ms exposure onwards compared to 70ms. These findings support the Cooperative Eye Hypothesis and indicate YET's mechanisms may resemble human cognitive processes, offering practical applications in education or human-robot communication design.