Face processing in children with autism: Effects of stimulus contents and type
Abstract
Recent eye tracking studies of face processing have produced differing accounts of how and whether children with autism differ from their typically developing peers. The two groups' gaze patterns appear to differ for dynamic videos of social scenes, but not for static photos of isolated individuals. The present study replicated and extended previous research by comparing the gaze patterns of individuals with and without autism for four types of stimuli: social dynamic, social static, isolated dynamic, and isolated static. Participants with autism differed from their typically developing peers only for social-dynamic stimuli; fixation durations were decreased for eye regions and increased for body regions. Further, these fixation durations predicted scores on a measure of social responsiveness. These findings reconcile differences in previous reports by identifying the specific social and dynamic task components associated with autism-related face processing impairments.
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Eye-tracking technology has not previously been used in studies of autism in the way that it is used in this study.
“Eye-tracking technology has not previously been used in studies of autism in the way that it is used in this study.”
From Hidden communicative competence: Case study evidence using eye-tracking and video analysis (2012) · cites this paper as Speer et al., 2007
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Hidden communicative competence: Case study evidence using eye-tracking and video analysis
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- Authors
- Speer, L. L., Cook, A. E., McMahon, W. M., & Clark, E.
- Affiliations
- University of Utah (US)
- Corresponding author
- Cook, Anne E.
- Venue
- Autism
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2007-05
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 265-277
- ISSN
- 1362-3613 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7005
- OpenAlex
- W2112793008
- Cited by
- 342
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 30 · 2014: 28 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 21
- FWCI
- 6.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Autism (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD035476)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Keywords
- face processing, gaze patterns, fixation duration, social scenes, dynamic stimuli, eye region, body regions, social responsiveness, children
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Autistic Disorder, Child, Face, Facial Expression, Female, Fixation, Ocular, Humans, Male, Perceptual Disorders, Severity of Illness Index, Time Factors, Visual Perception
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