Top-down enhancement of nonconscious gaze perception by working memory representations of social cues.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review March 12, 2026 Tian Yuan, Haoyue Ji, Baoyi Zhu et al.
Perception of eye gaze, which can occur outside conscious awareness, is influenced by what is held in working memory (WM). Using continuous flash suppression to render gaze invisible, the study found that suppressed gaze entered conscious awareness faster when its direction matched a face held in WM. This effect did not occur with passive viewing, ruling out simple perceptual priming. WM representations of head orientation also facilitated congruent gaze breakthrough, but WM representations of nonsocial cues like arrows did not. These findings indicate that WM acts as a top-down mechanism enhancing nonconscious gaze perception, suggesting a specialized process for social signals.