A pilot study assessing performance and visual attention of teenagers with ASD in a novel adaptive driving simulator

摘要

Individuals with ASD, compared to typically-developed peers, may demonstrate behaviors that are counter to safe driving. The current work examines the use of a novel simulator in two separate studies. Study 1 demonstrates statistically significant performance differences between individuals with (N = 7) and without ASD (N = 7) with regards to the number of turning-related driving errors (p < .01). Study 2 shows that both the performance-based feedback group (N = 9) and combined performance- and gaze-sensitive feedback group (N = 8) achieved statistically significant reductions in driving errors following training (p < .05). These studies are the first to present results of fine-grained measures of visual attention of drivers and an adaptive driving intervention for individuals with ASD.