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Eye-direction detection: A dissociation between geometric and joint attention skills in autism

Leekam, Sue R., Baron-Cohen, Simon, Perrett, Dave, Milders, Maarten, Brown, Sarah D. (1997) Eye-direction detection: A dissociation between geometric and joint attention skills in autism. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 15 (1). pp. 77-95. ISSN 0261-510X. (doi:10.1111/j.2044-835X.1997.tb00726.x) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:18155)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-835X.1997.tb00726...

Abstract

This study examined differences between children with autism and control children in the ability to follow another person's direction of gaze. In Expt 1, children with autism, Down syndrome and normally developing children were given two tasks. The gaze monitoring task (GMT) measured the child's spontaneous tendency to follow gaze direction in response to another person's change of head and eye movement. The visual perspective taking task (VPT) measured the child's ability to compute and report what the other person was looking at, when instructed to do so. Results showed that the majority of Down syndrome and normal children passed both tasks. In contrast, children with autism failed the GMT. This failure could not have been due to a lack of the relevant geometric skill, as they passed the VPT. This geometric skill was examined further in Expt 2, using a fine discrimination task which tested children's ability to discriminate degrees of change in the orientation of Children with autism were well within their developmental age level on this These results indicate a dissociation between (impaired) spontaneous monitoring and (intact) geometric analysis of gaze-direction.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/j.2044-835X.1997.tb00726.x
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Psychology
Depositing User: M.A. Ziai
Date Deposited: 21 Sep 2009 13:01 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:56 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/18155 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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