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Updated: Jun 8, 2025

A Method to Quantify Visual Information Processing in Children Using Eye Tracking
Published on: July 9, 2016
The relation between visual orienting functions, visual perception, and functional vision in children with
N Ben Itzhak1, L Stijnen2, E Ortibus1
1Department of Development and Regeneration, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), O&N IV Herestraat 49, Box 805, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; KU Leuven Child and Youth Institute (L-C&Y), Leuven, Belgium.
Background:
Brain-based impairments in visual perception (VP), termed cerebral visual impairment (CVI), are heterogeneous.
Aims:
To investigate relations between functional vision and (1) visual orienting functions (VOF) and (2) VP.
Methods And Procedures:
Forty-four children (Males = 20; Mean age = 9y11m) with (suspected) CVI were tested with an adapted virtual toy box (vTB) paradigm (eye tracking visual search task (VST) and a recognition/memory task), VP tests, a preferential looking eye tracking (PL-ET) paradigm, and the Flemish cerebral visual impairment questionnaire. Relations were tested with Spearman correlations.
Outcomes And Results:
Functional vision was related to VOF and VP. Children who performed poorly on the VST performed worse on the PL-ET paradigm (r success rate = 0.508-0.654; r reaction time (to fixation) = 0.327-0.633; r fixation duration = 0.532; r gaze fixation area/error = 0.565). Faster VST reaction time was related to higher recognition/memory task accuracy (r = -0.385) and better object/picture recognition (r = -0.371). Higher accuracy in the recognition/memory task was related to better object and face processing (r = -0.539), less visual (dis)interest (r = -0.380), and better clutter and distance viewing (r = -0.353).
Conclusions And Implications:
In CVI, VOF, VP, and functional vision are interlinked, and when one is impaired, it negatively affects the others. Hence, quantitatively profiling basic functioning, higher-order and daily life abilities is crucial.
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