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Visual Attention Patterns of Toddlers with ASD: Comparison of Performance on the Visual Exploration Task (VET) and the VET-Toddler

Thursday, May 14, 2015: 5:30 PM-7:00 PM
Imperial Ballroom (Grand America Hotel)
S. Zheng1, L. Turner-Brown2, K. Hume3 and B. A. Boyd4, (1)School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, (2)Psychiatry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, (3)University of North Carolina at Chapel HIll, Chapel Hill, NC, (4)Allied Health Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Background:  The presence of restricted interests is one of the core characteristics in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Eye-tracking is an effective tool to capture visual patterns of individuals when presented certain visual stimuli. Previous eye-tracking studies found that children with ASD showed unique patterns of exploration, detail orientation, and perseveration in the Visual Exploration Task (VET). The VET was mainly used with school-age children or older individuals with ASD previously. However, as the VET was designed with images appealing to an older population, it may not be as reliable and valid a task for toddlers. We developed a toddler adaption of the VET (VET_T) using developmentally appropriate images and arrays, with fewer and bigger stimuli per slide and compared the visual attention patterns of toddlers using the VET and VET_T.

Objectives:  This study compared the visual attention patterns of toddlers with ASD on the VET and VET_T in an effort to determine the utility of each eye tracking measure with. The goal was to compare visual exploration patterns across the VET and VET_T.

Methods:  40 toddlers with a diagnosis of ASD (17-35 months of age) participated in this study. Each participant completed the VET and VET_T, which includes a total of 19 visual arrays (12 VET and 7 VET_T). Randomized Arrays were organized to include high autism interest (HAI) items, low autism interest (LAI) items and social items. Four major outcome variables representing visual exploration patterns were calculated: 1) Percentage of time onscreen, 2) Exploration: Number of images viewed per second onscreen, 3) Perseveration: Duration of fixation per image explored, and 4) Detail Orientation (DO): Number of discrete fixations per image explored. A series of repeated measures ANOVA were conducted to test the differences in visual patterns of toddlers on the VET and VET_T.

Results:  No significant difference was found in percentage of time onscreen between the two tasks. However, toddlers with ASD showed different visual exploration patterns in the two tasks: 1) Toddlers with ASD were significantly more detail oriented in the VET_T (p<.05). Toddlers with ASD also showed significantly higher DO towards HAI items (p<.05), especially in the VET_T (significant interaction effect, p=.001);

2) No significant differences in exploration were found between tasks. However, in LAI and social arrays, the significant interaction effect indicated that toddlers with ASD showed more exploration for social items than LAI items in the VET_T

3) Toddlers with ASD showed significantly higher perseveration in VET_T (p<.05). No significant difference was found in stimulus types.

Conclusions:  The use of the VET_T task did not increase the percentage of time on screen for toddlers with ASD when compared to the VET. However, toddlers with ASD did have higher exploration, detail orientation and perseveration when using the VET_T in comparison to the VET.  With more developmentally appropriate stimulus, visual exploration patterns of toddlers with ASD are more manifested in the VET_T. Therefore, the VET_T might be a better tool in examining visual patterns of younger children with ASD.

See more of: Early Development (<48 months)
See more of: Early Development (< 48 months)