Brief report: young adults with autism spectrum disorder show normal attention to eye-gaze information-evidence from a new change blindness paradigm.
Young adults with autism detect eye-gaze shifts as quickly as typical adults, so look elsewhere for social skill barriers.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Fletcher-Watson et al. (2008) showed young adults short video clips. Each clip had two still photos that swapped back and forth. The only change was the direction a person's eyes looked. The team asked: Do adults with autism notice the eye-gaze shift as fast as typical adults? They ran the same test on both groups and timed the answers.
What they found
Adults with autism spotted the eye-gaze change just as fast and just as often as typical adults. There was no delay and no extra misses. The data say attention to eye direction works fine in this age group.
How this fits with other research
Hochhauser et al. (2018) used the same swap-task on younger teens. Surprisingly, the teens with autism were faster than typical peers at finding any change, not just eyes. The two studies look opposite, but they tested different ages and different kinds of changes. The teen study shows a speed edge for general detail, while the adult study shows equal speed for eye-gaze only.
McLennan et al. (2008) ran a single-case test that also found intact eye-gaze following in adults with autism. This backs up Sue's null result with a different lab task.
Benson et al. (2016) found adults with autism were slower to spot social oddities like a person facing the wrong way. Together these papers draw a line: basic eye-direction detection is intact, but higher-level social meaning may still need extra processing time.
Why it matters
If your client is a young adult, do not assume they miss eye-gaze cues. You can use natural eye-direction prompts during social skills training and expect them to register. When clients still struggle in real conversations, shift focus to interpreting the meaning behind the gaze, not the detection itself. Pair eye cues with clear verbal labels and extra wait-time to help bridge the gap between seeing and understanding.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Use natural eye-gaze cues in role play; if the client hesitates, add a verbal cue instead of repeating the look.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Other people's eye-gaze is a powerful social stimulus that captures and directs visual attention. There is evidence that this is not the case for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), although less is known about attention to eye-gaze in adults. We investigated whether young adults would detect a change to the direction of eye-gaze in another's face more efficiently than a control change (presence/absence of spectacles). A change blindness method was used in which images showed faces as part of a complex, naturalistic scene. Results showed that adults with ASD, like typically developing controls, were faster and more accurate at detecting eye-gaze than control changes. Results are considered in terms of a developmental account of the relationship between social attention and other skills.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2008 · doi:10.1007/s10803-008-0548-8