Comparing Face Recognition and Visual Scanning Skills in Children With and Without Autism Using Eye-Tracking

This study aimed to compare the visual scanning skills of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing children using eye tracking systems. The study group consisted of 37 children with ASD and 41 typically developing children aged between 3 and 10 years, who met the basic selection criteria of the study. The research applications were carried out at the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory of the Middle East Technical University. A set of visual materials on visual scanning and recall features were prepared to compare the visual scanning skills of children with ASD and typically developing children. As a result of the statistical analysis of the data obtained from the participant children through the eye-tracking device, it was determined that children with ASD exhibited unusual visual scanning and recall characteristics that were different from those of children with typical development. Children with ASD focus their visual attention on familiar faces and objects, whereas children with typical development focus their visual attention on novel (unfamiliar) faces and objects. Based on this result, it was suggested that in educational materials to be prepared for children with ASD, human faces and stimuli with which they have developed familiarity should be preferred, taking into account the visual focus of attention. Another striking result of this study was that children with ASD tended to focus more on the stimuli (objects) when the human face and the stimuli were presented together.