The article ‘Visual Fixation Patterns During Viewing of Naturalistic Social Situations as Predictors of Social Competence in Individuals With Autism’ investigates whether people with autism use different techniques to controls to extract social information from the world around them. This theory was based on previous research, which has found that people with autism often pay more attention to others’ mouths and less time on the eyes in social situations.
The paper looked at the time participants spent looking at four potential regions- mouth, eye, body and object- when watching a series of videos of complex social situations. Results showed that the time spent looking at the eye region was best at discriminating between those in the autism group and controls. However, within the group of autistic participants, time spent looking at the mouth was most predictive of (and positively correlated to) social competence, as measured by a range of questionnaires. More time spent looking at objects was predictive of greater social disability. The paper puts forward many possible explanations for this unexpected result, but does not claim to be certain of its reason.
Why do you think that time spent looking at people’s mouths was predictive of social competence in the autism group? What kind of social information can be found by looking at someone’s mouth?
To what extent do you think that this paper’s findings are relevant to developing behavioral treatments for autism?
Sarah Wagstaff.
I think that sometimes you can tell what emotion a person is trying to express by looking at their mouth but I think that looking at ones whole face is more revealing of the emotion being conveyed.
ReplyDeleteBefore reading this article would you have thought those with autism focused on objects instead of facial features?
Is focusing on the eyes or mouth any more important in reading social cues?
Time spent looking at the mouth in the autistic group might be negatively correlated with social competence. During normal social interaction, people usually look at each other in the eyes. Constant visual attendance to the mouth during social interaction might be an indicator of social disability. However, it is unsure whether it is the disability that causes the nonattendance or the nonattendance that reinforces social disability as correlation does not indicate causation.
ReplyDeleteWould training a autistic child to focus on the eyes during social interaction be possible?
Would eye contact help attendance to other aspects of social interaction?
As it discussed in the article, a hypothesis for why individuals with Autism are better at (and tend to)look at a person's mouth to understand the social situation might be because they feel that they can understand the English language better than they can understand non-verbal cues or facial expression. The latter two are more traits of social intelligence versus language, and while both are difficult, social intelligence is more of an intangible, abstract concept. It also mentioned in the article that most people with Autism have some form of mental retardation which would support the idea that they might feel less socially able. You can definitely hear tone in language but I agree with Creshun that eyes and facial expression tend to reveal more emotion. In terms of developing relevant treatment, I think it would be very beneficial to train people with autism to learn how to better read facial cues and eye expressions.
ReplyDeleteHowever, do you think training these individuals to do this would make them feel more socially awkward? Could it then affect their self-esteem and competence level?
Adding on to Amber, I think individuals with autism pay more attention to the mouth because they have a higher understanding of the English language versus non-verbal cues or facial expressions. I agree that looking and analyzing at the entire face in collaboration with all its various non-verbal cues reveals much more than verbal language alone.
ReplyDeleteI think the use of verbal cues are more attention grabbing to individuals with autism and this is why they pay more attention to it versus the not as attention grabbing facial cues. Focusing on what people are trying to communicate with you demands your attention. And perhaps that's where individuals that have autism and do not have autism differ. Individuals without autism can focus on the message being communicated with minimal attention needed as they pick up on all the other cues, facial and body.
But now I wonder, is there a nervous system pattern to this theory? Like is there some brain activity that hinders or prevents an individual with autism to focus on the mouth versus on the eyes and body?