Using Gaze Aversion To Tell When Children Are Learning
Pediatrics / Children's Health
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/sections/pediatrics/
04 Jun 2008 - 0:00 PDT
People use eye contact in a variety of ways every minute of
every day but how often do you find yourself staring into space with
concentrating on an issue or problem? Psychologists now know that
people who are carrying out a complex task tend to look away from
anyone else who is nearby. They refer to it as 'gaze aversion'.
Now they are finding out how to use changes in a child's gaze
aversion to understand their educational progress. A group led by Dr
Gwyneth Doherty-Sneddon at the University of Stirling, and funded by
Economic and Social Research Council, has looked at gaze aversion in
both children and adults.
They found that children aged 4-6 are more likely to avert
their gaze when they are carrying out a task that they find difficult,
or new to them. They also avert their gaze less if they are being
tested by someone they know.
When observing 5-8 year-olds, the researchers found that gaze
aversion is related to the complexity of the task being undertaken,
rather than to other stimuli. The results were consistent for a variety
of settings and for a range of tasks, such as balancing a beam with
asymmetrical loads.
Dr Doherty-Sneddon said: "These results are important because
they show that children avert their gaze when they are trying to carry
out a task which is difficult or with which they are not yet familiar.
In our most recent work we have investigated whether gaze aversion is
associated with transitional knowledge states. That means that gaze
aversion is a useful thing for teachers, carers and parents to know
about."
She says that, from the point of view of the teacher, gaze
aversion is a positive sign. A child who is doing it is likely to be
developing their understanding and is what Dr Doherty-Sneddon terms an
"improver". By contrast, children who are not improving their
performance, or who are regressing, use gaze aversion less often.
Keeping an eye on gaze aversion is especially valuable for
teachers and social workers who are trying to understand the mental
state of people with: Autistic spectrum disorders (ASD); Attention
Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); or Williams Syndrome, the
genetic condition popularly called Cocktail Party Syndrome. "People
with Williams Syndrome have been characterised as being hypersociable
and using excessive amounts of eye contact, which is an interesting
contrast to people with autism. Our gaze aversion work promises to
provide new and important insights into the mental and social
functioning of such groups" says Dr Doherty-Sneddon.
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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.----------------------------
1.The research project 'Children's Eye Gaze: Associated
Cognitive and Physiological States' was funded by the Economic and
Social Research Council and carried out by Dr Gwyneth Doherty-Sneddon
from the University of Stirling.
2.Methodology: The recently completed work at Stirling
University involved working with over 230 children and young people
from 5 years of age to early adulthood. A range of methods were used
including measures of physiologicial arousal as well as learning and
problem solving tasks.
3.The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's
largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating
to social and economic issues. It supports independent, high quality
research which impacts on business, the public sector and the third
sector. The ESRC's planned total expenditure in 2008/09 is £203
million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and
postgraduate students in academic institutions and research policy
institutes. More at
http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/
4.ESRC Society Today offers free access to a broad range of social
science research and presents it in a way that makes it easy to
navigate and saves users valuable time. As well as bringing together
all ESRC-funded research and key online resources such as the Social
Science Information Gateway and the UK Data Archive, non-ESRC resources
are included, for example the Office for National Statistics. The
portal provides access to early findings and research summaries, as
well as full texts and original datasets through integrated search
facilities. More at
http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/
5.The ESRC confirms the quality of its funded research by evaluating
research projects through a process of peer review. This research has
been graded as 'Outstanding'.
Source: Danielle Moore
Economic & Social Research Council