Effect of Perceptual Load and Nature of Distractors on the Selective Attention of Children with and without ASD

The current research study focuses on the effect of perceptual load and the nature of distractors between children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and children without Autism Spectrum Disorder. The purpose of the study is to measure the selective attention of children with ASD, further comparing children with ASD and children without ASD. Selective attention is measured on the basis of perceptual load and nature of distractors. The independent variables of the study are perceptual load, which is the number of distractors and also the nature of distractors (similar and dissimilar) and the dependent variable is the reaction time of the children during the task. The study has the following hypotheses: • Perceptual load and nature of distractors will influence selective attention of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. • There will be difference in selective attention as a function of perceptual load and nature of distractors in children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder. The study was conducted on 15 children with ASD and 30 children without ASD, between the age group of 5 to 13 years, from the Urban Bangalore Population. The subjects were shown a set of stimulus cards that contained a target stimuli, accompanied with distractors. Depending upon the number of distractors the perceptual load of the card varied and depending on the similarity and dissimilarity of the distractors to the target stimulus, the nature of the distractors varied. The data was collected by noting the children's reaction time in identifying the target stimulus. The data was collected and analysed using 2 two way mixed and within subjects ANOVA. One was used to analyse the effect of perceptual load on selective attention within each group and between two groups. The other was used to analyse the effect of nature of distractor on selective attention within each group and between two groups. The results showed that there exists a significant difference in reaction time between group 1 (children with ASD) and group 2 (children without ASD) with regard to the nature of distractors and perceptual load. Thus accepting the first hypothesis. The ANOVA value for the main within subject's effect shows that the reaction time has differed significantly across the levels with regard to both perceptual load and nature of distractors thus accepting the second hypotheses. The implications of this research can be used to derive suitable intervention tools to enhance a child's perceptual capacity based on perceptual load and nature of distractors. This kind of tools that will enhance the child's attention can be used by teachers and also parents to help their children with disabilities to perform better from what they used to. This tool also acts as a material for play for the children, thus keeping them entertained while helping them with their attention.