Perception vs. Reality: Aligning Objective and Subjective Measures of Joint Visual Attention

Joint visual attention (JVA), defined as two or more people looking at the same place at the same time with an awareness of the others' attention, is a cornerstone of social cognition research. While JVA is typically measured through eye tracking, such measures may overlook the subjective awareness central to its definition. This study compares the objective component of JVA (eye-tracking) with its subjective component (continuous self-report) to assess their alignment. Learners viewed two educational videos either with or without instructor presence, allowing investigation of how perceived gaze cues influence subjective and objective JVA. Instructor and learner gaze were compared. Results confirm that self-reported JVA corresponded with smaller gaze distance between instructor and learner, supporting eye tracking as a valid albeit incomplete proxy for JVA. Instructor presence reduced overall JVA, likely due to learners looking towards the instructor. Implications for attention coordination in educational contexts are discussed.