What is it about?
One striking characteristics of autism is a lack of or altered eye contact in social interactions. Therefore, it is possible that photographs containing human figures might provoke gaze avoidance in individuals with autism. We used eye-tracking technology to evaluate gaze of individuals with and without autism towards photographs containing shared activities between two or three human figures. Social contents were found to be associated with gaze behaviors.
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Why is it important?
This research has implications for our understanding of gaze patterns across etiology categories, and in turn, informs the design of educational materials such as Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Research with individuals with autism yielded mixed results as to whether there is avoidance of gaze to images containing humans. Some reports suggest the presence of gaze avoidance, while other research does not. The social contents depicted within photographs may account for the discrepant results. Many studies used one-person photographs, reporting no significant between-group differences in viewing patterns. In contrast, when viewing sets of stimuli in which two or more persons were present, individuals with autism spent significantly less time viewing the faces than the typically developing controls. Therefore, the current study is of value as it aims to evaluate whether the social contents would influence gaze patterns in participants with autism.
Perspectives
All participants (typically developing, Autism, Down syndrome) spent more time viewing the human figures than non-human elements. From the perspective of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) displays which often use photographs, the results strongly indicate that in photographs of the sort we used, human figures were generally attractive to participants with autism. However, the presence and absence of shared activities and the number of people in photographs may influence viewing patterns differently. Clinicians and manufacturers designing AAC materials should considered such information.
Jiali Liang
Pennsylvania State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Gaze Toward Naturalistic Social Scenes by Individuals With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Implications for Augmentative and Alternative Communication Designs, Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, May 2018, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),
DOI: 10.1044/2018_jslhr-l-17-0331.
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