The frequency and distribution of spontaneous attention shifts between social and nonsocial stimuli in autistic, typically developing, and nonautistic developmentally delayed infants
Abstract
Spontaneous shifts of attention were observed in autistic, typically developing, and nonautistic developmentally delayed infants. Three types of attention shifting behaviour were observed; (1) between an object and another object, (2) between an object and a person, and (3) between a person and another person. The two control groups shifted attention more frequently between an object and a person than between an object and another object or between a person and another person. The infants with autism showed a different pattern, shifting attention between an object and another object more than any other type of shift. Furthermore, infants with autism showed fewer shifts of attention between an object and a person, and between person and person, than did the two control groups. They also spent less time overall looking at people and looked more briefly at people and for longer durations at objects, compared to the two control groups. These results indicate an abnormality in social orientation in autism even at the early age of 20 months.
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There is evidence that preferences for social over nonsocial stimuli are altered in ASD.
“there is evidence that these preferences are altered in ASD (Swettenham et al., 1998).”
From The impact of atypical sensory processing on social impairments in autism spectrum disorder (2018) · cites this paper as Swettenham et al., 1998
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- Authors
- Swettenham, J., Baron‐Cohen, S., Charman, T., Cox, A., Baird, G., Drew, A., Rees, L., & Wheelwright, S.
- Affiliations
- University of London (GB)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- University College London (GB)
- Guy's Hospital (GB)
- Venue
- Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1998-07
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 747-753
- ISSN
- 0021-9630 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-7610
- OpenAlex
- W2130534871
- Cited by
- 370
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 18 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 22
- FWCI
- 2.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Action Observation and Synchronization
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, attentional shift, social orientation, infants, social attention, developmental delay, typically developing children, gaze duration, social cognition
- MeSH terms
- Attention, Autistic Disorder, Developmental Disabilities, Child, Preschool, Female, Fixation, Ocular, Humans, Infant, Language Development Disorders, Male, Object Attachment, Orientation, Personality Assessment, Reference Values, Social Behavior
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