A Pilot Study Assessing Performance and Visual Attention of Teenagers with ASD in a Novel Adaptive Driving Simulator.
Joshua Wade, Amy Weitlauf, Neill Broderick and 6 others
PMID 28756550WHAT IT FOUND
Teens with ASD did not show a clear difference in total simulator driving errors, but they made more turning errors.
In a small training pilot, both simulator modes reduced errors, but looking time did not change, and practice effects cannot be ruled out.
Key findings
01In Study 1, seven teens with ASD made more total trial errors than seven TD controls (median 11 vs 8), but the difference was not statistically significant.
02Participants with ASD failed twice as many turning-related trials as TD controls (median 6 vs 3).
03In Study 2, among analysed participants, both simulator groups showed reduced trial errors from pre-test to post-test: performance-based median 7 to 3, gaze-contingent median 10 to 5.5, though the pilot cannot separate training from practice effects.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The samples were very small, with 7 participants in each group in Study 1 and 9 and 8 analysed in Study 2, so the findings are preliminary. Study 1 did not find a significant difference in total trial errors, so the main performance difference was not clear. Study 2 had no standard driving-training or no-training control group, and the authors say the error reductions cannot be separated from practice effects. The simulator's validity has not been proven, and the studies did not measure whether skills transfer to real on-road driving. Driving experience and age were not fully controlled, because some participants had permits or licences and others did not, and the post hoc analyses used small samples. ADHD and other co-occurring conditions were not controlled, and they can affect driving performance and attention. Only one female participant was enrolled in Study 2, and participants were recruited from a clinical registry.
Declared interests
Each author declared no conflict of interest. The supplied text does not state a funding source.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that the simulator makes teenagers with ASD safer drivers on the road. This was a pilot study with no real driving outcome, no standard training control, and the authors state the error reductions cannot be separated from practice effects. Also, the gaze-contingent version was not shown to be better than the performance-based version.