Relations between Social Motivation and Gaze Behavior in Autistic and Non-Autistic Adolescents

Abstract

Autistic individuals experience challenges in their social interactions. One factor that may underlie these challenges is social motivation, which may also be related to variations in eye contact. Perspectives on this relation consist of several mixed views, potentially due to the fact that most research has been done in static, non-real world settings. My research uses mobile eye-tracking to bridge this gap by analyzing gaze patterns in individuals from three different dyad types: N-AUT (Non-autistic)-N-AUT (n = 37), AUT (Autistic)-N-AUT (n = 24), and AUT-AUT (n = 6), with a total of 67 participants, exploring the link between gaze-to-face behavior and social motivation during live interactions. I hypothesize that there will be a significant positive correlation between gaze and social motivation. The visit my research focuses on simulates a real-world environment, allowing better assessment of the underlying aspects of peer social interactions. It consists of both an interactional and individual section. Throughout the duration of the interaction, both participants of the dyad are wearing eye-tracking glasses, which I will use to quantify their gaze-to-face behavior. To assess social motivation, I am focusing on an individual task, which uses money as a reward. In the task, the participant is given options to choose between learning more about their partner, other kids their age, or trivia facts. I am measuring social motivation by comparing the percentage of time participants select trivia over their partner, and other kids over their partner. Once all data is collected, I will assess the correlation between gaze-to-face behavior and social motivation, furthering understanding of their link in a real-world setting.