Eye tracking

NIH Program Study Evaluates Eye Tracking as a Tool for Assessing Attention Patterns in Children

Posted on by Jodi Snare

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Eye-tracking technology can be used to reliably assess attention patterns linked to socially withdrawn behaviors in preschool children, according to a new study funded by the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program at the National Institutes of Health.

Humans tend to give more attention to emotional information, such as happy or angry facial expressions, than neutral information. However, past research indicates that socially withdrawn children are less likely to conform to this pattern. This study aims to extend the existing research, which is limited primarily to White children in urban areas, to include children of diverse populations.

Eye-tracking is a technology that allows researchers to determine precisely where and how long a person looks at a stimulus. The research team compared eye-tracking data from indigenous children in the Navajo Birth Cohort Study (NBCS) with primarily non-Hispanic White children in the Illinois Kids Development Study (IKIDS). Both groups paid more attention to emotional faces. Socially withdrawn indigenous children were more likely than non-Hispanic White children to avoid emotional faces.

“Because eye-tracking technology doesn’t rely on limited clinical observations or parents’ reports, it can be used as a more objective measure across various settings and communities,” said Sara Nozadi, PhD, an ECHO Program investigator at the University of New Mexico. Eye-tracking technology can also be used in remote communities without requiring participants to travel to clinic.

Dr. Nozadi and Andréa Aguiar, PhD, an ECHO Program investigator at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, led this collaborative research published in Emotion.

Nozadi, S. et al. Cross-Cultural Applicability of Eye-Tracking in Assessing Attention to Emotional Faces in Preschool-Aged Children. Emotion. DOI:10.1037/emo0001124

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About ECHO: ECHO is a nationwide research program supported by the NIH. Launched in 2016, ECHO aims to enhance the health of children for generations to come. ECHO investigators study the effects of a broad range of early environmental influences on child health and development. For more information, visit echochildren.org.

About the NIH: NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information, visit www.nih.gov.

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ECHO Researchers Propose Eye-Tracking Technology Can Provide a Non-Biased, Cross-Cultural Tool for Assessing Attention Patterns in Young Children

Posted on by Jodi Snare

Collaborative ECHO research led by Sara Nozadi, PhD, of the University of New Mexico and Andréa Aguiar, PhD of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign suggests that eye-tracking technology can be used as a robust measure across diverse populations and settings to assess attention patterns linked to socially withdrawn behavior in preschool children. Their research, titled “Cross-Cultural Applicability of Eye-Tracking in Assessing Attention to Emotional Faces in Preschool-Aged Children” is published in the Emotion Journal.

Humans tend to give more attention to emotional information than neutral information. Past research indicates departures from this pattern typically occur in children with socially withdrawn behaviors. However, most of this research has been very limited and only conducted in controlled settings among primarily White children from urban areas.

In this study, ECHO researchers wanted to determine the extent to which two eye-tracking–based measures could be used cross-culturally to assess attention biases and how these biases might relate to socially withdrawn behaviors in children.

The researchers leveraged ECHO’s large sample size and diverse population to compare information from children in two ECHO cohorts that were very different demographically, geographically, racially and culturally. They analyzed data from 125 children aged 3.5 to 5.5 years from the Navajo Birth Cohort Study (NBCS) and 70 children aged 3.8 to 4.0 years from the Illinois Kids Development Study (IKIDS). NBCS is a cohort of indigenous children who live in rural Tribal lands across New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona and tend to have relatively low socioeconomic status (SES). In contrast, children from IKIDS are primarily Non-Hispanic White and high-SES, living around the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus in central Illinois. Children in the NBCS historically have not been included in developmental studies, including those investigating attention biases, whereas the IKIDS sample closely resembles the children assessed in most of the previously published eye-tracking studies of attention bias toward emotional stimuli.

Researchers had both groups of children complete two eye-tracking tasks that measured their attention to photos of human faces with positive, negative, and neutral expressions. Indigenous children were assessed in different locations in the Navajo territory, whereas IKIDS children came to a research laboratory in the University campus. Mothers also reported on their child’s socially withdrawn behaviors using the Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL)—a standardized survey commonly used in research and clinical settings to evaluate risk for behavioral and emotional problems in children.

Attention patterns were similar across the two samples of children irrespective of differences in their cultures, demographics, or assessment settings. Overall, children paid more attention to emotional faces compared to neutral faces, and they were particularly quick to detect angry faces—because this expression may signify a threat. These findings replicate results of previous research with both adults and children. Indigenous children with socially withdrawn behaviors were more likely than other children in the study to avoid emotional faces—a response that has been observed in children with higher levels of socially withdrawn behaviors.

“This work shows that eye tracking can be used to measure patterns of attention towards emotional facial cues—both adaptive patterns and those that underlie socially withdrawn behaviors—in young children,” said Dr. Nozadi. “Because eye tracking technology does not rely on limited clinical observations or parents’ reports, it can be used as a more objective and less biased measure across various settings and communities.”

Moving forward, the researchers will look at how the responses they see in these young children change with age and determine whether eye tracking continues to be an unbiased tool for assessing attention throughout development.

Read the research summary.

ECHO Study Compares Cross-Cultural Patterns of Attention Linked to Underlying Behavior Problems in Children

<< Back to Research Summaries

ECHO Study Compares Cross-Cultural Patterns of Attention Linked to Underlying Behavior Problems in Children

Authors: Sara Nozadi, Andréa Aguiar, et al.

 

Who sponsored this study?

This research was supported by the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, Office of The Director, National Institutes of Health.

 

What were the study results?

Patterns of attention were similar across the two groups of children despite the differences in their cultures, demographics, or assessment settings. Overall, children paid more attention to emotional faces compared to neutral faces. They were particularly quick to identify angry faces, which might be an adaptive response to a perceived threat. These findings replicate previous research results with both adults and children.

Indigenous children with socially withdrawn behaviors avoided emotional faces—a response observed in children with higher levels of socially withdrawn behaviors from other populations.

Footnote: Results reported here are for a single study. Other or future studies may provide new information or different results. You should not make changes to your health without first consulting your healthcare professional.

 

What was the study's impact?

This work suggests that eye tracking can be used as an objective measure of attention patterns in children across different settings and cultures, which can help researchers and clinicians more reliably identify children with early behavior problems. Because eye tracking technology does not rely on clinical observations or parents’ reports, it can be used as an unbiased measure across different communities to validate data collected through clinical assessments and parent reports in hard-to-reach communities.

 

Why was this study needed?

Humans tend to give more attention to emotional information than neutral information. Past research indicates departures from this pattern typically occur in children with socially withdrawn behaviors. However, this research is limited because it has been conducted mostly in controlled settings among primarily White children from urban areas.

In this study, ECHO researchers examined the extent to which two eye-tracking–based measures could be used cross-culturally to assess attention biases and how these biases might relate to children’s socially withdrawn behaviors.

 

Who was involved?

To evaluate whether eye-tracking technology could be applied effectively across cultures, researchers compared information from two ECHO cohorts that were very different demographically, geographically, racially, and culturally.

The researchers analyzed data from 125 children from the Navajo Birth Cohort Study, a cohort of indigenous children with relatively low socioeconomic status (SES) living in rural tribal lands, and 70 children from the Illinois Kids Development Study (IKIDS), a primarily Non-Hispanic White and high-SES cohort living around the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus in central Illinois.

 

What happened during the study?

Children between the ages of 3.5 years to 5.5 years completed two eye-tracking tasks that measured their attention to photos of human faces with positive, negative, and neutral expressions. Indigenous children were assessed in different locations in the Navajo territory, whereas IKIDS children came to a research laboratory in the University campus. Mothers also reported on children’s socially withdrawn behaviors, such as avoiding eye contact, using the Child Behavioral Checklist—a survey commonly used in research and clinical settings to evaluate risk for behavioral and emotional problems in children.

 

What happens next?

The researchers will look at how the responses they see in these young children change with age and determine whether eye tracking continues to be an unbiased tool for assessing attention throughout development.

 

Where can I learn more?

Access the full journal article titled “Cross-Cultural Applicability of Eye-Tracking in Assessing Attention to Emotional Faces in Preschool-Aged Children” published in the Emotion Journal.

The content is the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

 

Published: September 15, 2022

Access the associated article.

Download this summary

ECHO Study Compares Cross-Cultural Patterns of Attention Linked to Underlying Behavior Problems in Children

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