Specifics of Visual Information Processing in Children With Hearing Impairment in a Learning Situation: Eye Tracking Research

The article examines the problem of the consequences of early auditory deprivation, which leads to neural and cognitive reorganization of visual information processing. The aim of the study was to use an eye tracker to identify the specifics of visual processing that occurs as a result of auditory deprivation in early life. The main task was to determine the strategies of eye movement patterns in the process of perception of visualizations of educational materials while solving mental tasks using an eye-tracking device, which would reveal a number of features of visual processing in children with hearing impairments. A comparative analysis was carried out between typically developing children and children with cochlear implants aged 5-7 years. To determine features of visual perception, we used visual representations of educational material to bring experimental conditions closer to natural learning situations. In order to trace the specifics of visual information processing in a learning situation, we used classical tasks for excluding objects, simple non-verbal analogies, recognizing objects in illustrations, and analyzed the features of oculomotor activity during the perception of stimuli by children. Eye movement tracking was carried out using a stationary GP3 eye tracker. Using scanning methods and analyzing the fixation sequence, differences in visual information processing between children with hearing impairments and those without were revealed. Changes in search strategies (an increase in switching, repeated views, patterns, and sequences of transitions between areas) were recorded, as well as changes in spatial distribution of attention, sequence of visual processing, dynamics of the field of interest, and repeatability and directionality of scanning images. Children with hearing impairment are characterized by a bottom-up strategy and chaotic search for information features. Changes in the sequence of information processing and distribution of visual attention affect the learning process in perceptual actions aimed at visual detection, recognition, discrimination, or identification of information necessary for mental operations.