Examining the Link Between Social Affect and Visual Exploration of Cute Stimuli in Autistic Children.

Baby schema refers to physical features perceived as cute, known to trigger attention, induce positive emotions, and prompt social interactions. Given the reduced visual attention to social stimuli observed in individuals on the autism spectrum, the current study examines whether the sensitivity to...

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Publicado en:Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders Vol. 55; no. 12; pp. 4212 - 4226
Autores principales: Zaharia, Alexandra, Kojovic, Nada, Rojanawisut, Tara, Sander, David, Schaer, Marie, Samson, Andrea C.
Formato: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article
Publicado: Springer Nature Dec2025
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Examining the Link Between Social Affect and Visual Exploration of Cute Stimuli in Autistic Children.
      aug:
        au:
          Zaharia, Alexandra
          Kojovic, Nada
          Rojanawisut, Tara
          Sander, David
          Schaer, Marie
          Samson, Andrea C.
        affil: https://ror.org/03exthx58 Faculty of Psychology, UniDistance Suisse, Brig, Switzerland
      sug:
        subj:
          Autism Spectrum Disorder
          Affect
          Visual Perception
          Attention Evaluation
          Severity of Illness
          Human
          Funding Source
          Female
          Male
          Infant
          Child, Preschool
          Child
          Prospective Studies
          Comparative Studies
          Multivariate Analysis of Variance
          Post Hoc Analysis
          T-Tests
          Regression
          Eye Movement Measurements
          Descriptive Statistics
          Social Behavior
          Infant: 1-23 months
          Child, Preschool: 2-5 years
          Child: 6-12 years
          Female
          Male
      ab: Baby schema refers to physical features perceived as cute, known to trigger attention, induce positive emotions, and prompt social interactions. Given the reduced visual attention to social stimuli observed in individuals on the autism spectrum, the current study examines whether the sensitivity to baby schema is also affected. We expected that the looking time towards cute-featured stimuli would vary with symptom severity levels and would be associated with social affect. Ninety-four children (31 typically developing; 63 diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder - ASD) aged 20–83 months (M = 49.63, SD = 13.59) completed an eye-tracking visual exploration task. Autistic participants were separated into two groups based on symptom severity: children with high autism severity symptoms (HS ASD; N = 23) and low-moderate autism symptoms (LMS ASD; N = 40). Animals and neutral objects were simultaneously presented on the screen along with either human babies (condition 1) or adults (condition 2). The results indicated that visual attention oriented to cute-featured stimuli varied with autism symptom severity: only LMS and TD groups spend more time looking at cute-featured stimuli (babies; animals) than neutral objects. Moreover, children with higher severity in the social affect domain spent less time on the stimuli depicting cute than non-cute stimuli. These findings suggest that autism symptom severity and social skills are linked to variations in visual attention to cute stimuli. Implications of baby schema sensitivity are discussed in relation to the development of social competencies and play, responsiveness to robot-based interventions, as well as appraised relevance in autistic children.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype:
        pictorial
        research
        tables/charts
        Journal Article
      ougenre: Article
    language: English
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