Magdalena Król1, Michał Król2. 1. Wrocław Faculty of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland. 2. Department of Economics, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Abstract
We used a perceptual closure task with Mooney images as stimuli to record eye-movement patterns in response to the same degraded image before and after perceptual learning in 21 adolescents and young adults with ASD and 23 sex-, age-, and IQ-matched typically developing individuals. In the control group, we observed changes in the eye-movement patterns between the first and the last presentation of the degraded stimulus, reflecting top-down optimization of eye-movement patterns, that is, a decrease in the number of fixations and interfixation distance, coupled with an increase in the duration of fixations. This effect was attenuated in individuals with autism, pointing to a decreased rate of perceptual learning. We also found that participants with autism displayed decreased scanpath stability, that is, a lower recurrence of fixation locations between different presentations of the same image, which may suggests a lower rate of perceptual learning or decreased predictability in the eye-movement patterns. These results provide evidence for decreased use of prior knowledge in perceptual decisions in autism. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1386-1398.
We used a perceptual closure task with Mooney images as stimuli to record eye-movement patterns in response to the same degraded image before and after perceptual learning in 21 adolescents and young adults with ASD and 23 sex-, age-, and IQ-matched typically developing individuals. In the control group, we observed changes in the eye-movement patterns between the first and the last presentation of the degraded stimulus, reflecting top-down optimization of eye-movement patterns, that is, a decrease in the number of fixations and interfixation distance, coupled with an increase in the duration of fixations. This effect was attenuated in individuals with autism, pointing to a decreased rate of perceptual learning. We also found that participants with autism displayed decreased scanpath stability, that is, a lower recurrence of fixation locations between different presentations of the same image, which may suggests a lower rate of perceptual learning or decreased predictability in the eye-movement patterns. These results provide evidence for decreased use of prior knowledge in perceptual decisions in autism. Autism Res 2019, 12: 1386-1398.