Eye-voice span during rapid automatized naming: evidence of reduced automaticity in individuals with autism spectrum disorder and their siblings

Abstract

BackgroundIndividuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their parents demonstrate impaired performance in rapid automatized naming (RAN), a task that recruits a variety of linguistic and executive processes. Though the basic processes that contribute to RAN differences remain unclear, eye-voice relationships, as measured through eye tracking, can provide insight into cognitive and perceptual processes contributing to RAN performance. For example, in RAN, eye-voice span (EVS), the distance ahead the eyes are when articulation of a target item's label begins, is an indirect measure of automaticity of the processes underlying RAN. The primary objective of this study was to investigate automaticity in naming processes, as indexed by EVS during RAN. The secondary objective was to characterize RAN difficulties in individuals with ASD and their siblings.MethodsParticipants (aged 15–33 years) included 21 individuals with ASD, 23 siblings of individuals with ASD, and 24 control subjects, group-matched on chronological age. Naming time, frequency of errors, and EVS were measured during a RAN task and compared across groups.ResultsA stepwise pattern of RAN performance was observed, with individuals with ASD demonstrating the slowest naming across all RAN conditions, controls demonstrating the fastest naming, and siblings demonstrating intermediate performance. Individuals with ASD exhibited smaller EVSs than controls on all RAN conditions, and siblings exhibited smaller EVSs during number naming (the most highly automatized type of naming). EVSs were correlated with naming times in controls only, and only in the more automatized conditions.ConclusionsThese results suggest that reduced automaticity in the component processes of RAN may underpin differences in individuals with ASD and their siblings. These findings also provide further support that RAN abilities are impacted by genetic liability to ASD. This study has important implications for understanding the underlying skills contributing to language-related deficits in ASD.

Effective scheduling of looking and talking during rapid automatized naming.

“…As is typically found, RAN completion time decreased from Object to Color to Letter to Digit RAN (Bos, Zijlstra & Spelberg, 2002; Cronin & Carver, 1998; Denckla & Rudel, 1974; Hogan-Brown et al, 2014; Meyer, Wood, Hart, & Felton, 1998; Misra, et al, 2004)). Average EVS was significantly lower for the Object and Color RANs than for the Letter RAN, which was lower than for the Digit RAN.…”

When the Eyes No Longer Lead: Familiarity and Length Effects on Eye-Voice Span

“…Two of these components are processing speed (more automatic processes are faster; see Cohen et al, 1992; Moors and De Houwer, 2006; Moors, 2016) and release from attentional control, which in turn affords immunity from competing processes, or immunity from interference (Cohen et al, 1992). The relation between automaticity and EVS has been supported by findings that dyslexic subjects, who lack automaticity, show decreased EVS values compared to controls (De Luca et al, 2013), and the same goes for autistic subjects (Hogan-Brown et al, 2014). The idea that EVS reflects automaticity is also supported by findings that EVS predicts naming velocity for automatized processes such as digit naming, but not for less automatized processes such as dice naming (Pan et al, 2013).…”

“…The idea that EVS reflects automaticity is also supported by findings that EVS predicts naming velocity for automatized processes such as digit naming, but not for less automatized processes such as dice naming (Pan et al, 2013). In these studies, the link between automaticity and EVS has been framed around the processing speed component of automaticity (Pan et al, 2013; Hogan-Brown et al, 2014; Laubrock and Kliegl, 2015): it has been argued that the speed (automaticity) of print-to-sound conversion is key to EVS. The potential role of the other automaticity component, immunity from interference, on EVS has remained unexplored.…”

Possible Endophenotypes in the Search for Genetic Risk Factors in Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…Furthermore, children with ASD and their parents have been shown to have an impaired performance in rapid automatized naming. Siblings of patients had intermediate performances when compared with controls [62,63].…”