Abstract
Other people’s eye-gaze is a powerful social stimulus that captures and directs visual attention. There is evidence that this is not the case for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), although less is known about attention to eye-gaze in adults. We investigated whether young adults would detect a change to the direction of eye-gaze in another’s face more efficiently than a control change (presence/absence of spectacles). A change blindness method was used in which images showed faces as part of a complex, naturalistic scene. Results showed that adults with ASD, like typically developing controls, were faster and more accurate at detecting eye-gaze than control changes. Results are considered in terms of a developmental account of the relationship between social attention and other skills.
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Notes
For more information about the selection of materials, matching procedures and instructions to participants please see http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/sue.fletcher-watson
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Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge the inspiration for this study provided by Michelle Turner. Thanks also go to all our participants and, in particular, staff and students at the European Society for People with Autism. We are grateful for the constructive comments of two anonymous reviewers. The work presented in this paper was supported by an ESRC studentship, number PTA-030-2004-00530.
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Fletcher-Watson, S., Leekam, S.R., Findlay, J.M. et al. Brief Report: Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder Show Normal Attention to Eye-Gaze Information—Evidence from a New Change Blindness Paradigm. J Autism Dev Disord 38, 1785–1790 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-008-0548-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-008-0548-8