title: Social Referencing Gaze Behavior During a Videogame Task: Eye Tracking Evidence from Children With and Without ASD.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to understand the social referencing behaviors of children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD) while visually attending to a videogame stimulus depicting both the face of the videogame player and the videogame play action. Videogames appear to offer a uniquely well-suited environment for the emergence of friendships, but it is not known if children with and without ASD attend to and play videogames similarly. Eyetracking technology was used to investigate visual attention of participants matched based on chronological age. Parametric and nonparametric statistical analyses were used and results indicated the groups did not differ on percentage of time spent visually attending to any of the areas of interest, with one possible exception.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Pennsylvania State University, 308 Ford Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA. enh109@psu.edu.
authors.forename: Erinn H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Finke
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Pennsylvania State University, 308 Ford Building, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
authors.forename: Krista M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Wilkinson
authors.affiliation: Department of Community and Therapeutic Recreation, University of North Carolina Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Benjamin D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Hickerson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D012919:Social Behavior; D018910:Video Games / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Autism; Eyetracking; Social referencing; Videogames