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The role of eye contact in goal detection: Evidence from normal infants and children with autism or mental handicap

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Wendy Phillips ,
Simon Baron-Cohen  and
Michael Rutter
Wendy Phillips
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, University of London
Simon Baron-Cohen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, University of London
Michael Rutter
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, University of London
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Abstract

One reason for looking at a person's eyes may be to diagnose their goal, because a person's eye direction reliably specifies what they are likely to act upon next. We report an experiment that investigates whether or not young normal infants use eye contact for this function. We placed them in situations in which the adult's action toward them was either ambiguous or unambiguous in its goal. Results showed that the majority of normal infants and young children with mental handicap made instant eye contact immediately following the ambiguous action but rarely after the unambiguous action. Young children with autism, in contrast, made eye contact equally (little) in both conditions. These results are discussed in relation to the function of eye contact, to our understanding of infant cognition, and to the theory of mind hypothesis of autism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 4 , Issue 3 , July 1992 , pp. 375 - 383
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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