How accurate are autistic adults and those high in autistic traits at making face-to-face line-of-sight judgements?
Megan Freeth, Emma Morgan, Patricia Bugembe and 1 others
PMID 32169016WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic adults were less accurate than neurotypical adults at judging where someone was looking, but both groups performed well above chance.
Brief glances were no harder than prolonged stares for autistic adults. Autistic traits in the general population did not predict accuracy.
Key findings
01Autistic adults had higher error scores (1.38) than neurotypical adults (1.08), indicating reduced accuracy in face-to-face line-of-sight judgements.
02There was no interaction between group and cue duration, meaning autistic adults were just as accurate judging brief 1-second glances as they were judging prolonged 5-second stares.
03In a sample of university students, there was no correlation between autistic traits (BAPQ scores) and the accuracy of line-of-sight judgements.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample sizes were small (14 per group in Study 1), which limits the ability to detect subtle differences. The experimenter in Study 1 was not blind to the participants' diagnoses, which could have introduced subtle cues. The task was a simplified, single-component test of gaze following; it did not involve the complexity of real-world social interaction where multiple cues compete. The participants were adults of average to above-average ability; results may not generalize to children or those with intellectual disabilities.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The work was funded by a small grant from the Experimental Psychology Society.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that gaze-following training is necessary or effective. The authors explicitly state they would be reticent to recommend training this skill in adulthood, as it is unclear if such training leads to tangible long-term benefits or merely helps individuals appear more neurotypical.