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Route-learning strategies in typical and atypical development; eye tracking reveals atypical landmark selection in Williams syndrome

Farran, EK; Formby, S; Daniyal, F; Holmes, T; Van Herwegen, J; (2016) Route-learning strategies in typical and atypical development; eye tracking reveals atypical landmark selection in Williams syndrome. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research , 60 (10) pp. 933-944. 10.1111/jir.12331. Green open access

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Successful navigation is crucial to everyday life. Individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) have impaired spatial abilities. This includes a deficit in spatial navigation abilities such as learning the route from A to B. To-date, to determine whether participants attend to landmarks when learning a route, landmark recall tasks have been employed after the route learning experience. Here, we combined virtual reality and eye tracking technologies, for the first time, to measure landmark use in typically developing (TD) children and participants with WS during route-learning. METHOD: Nineteen individuals with WS were asked to learn a route in a sparse environment (few landmarks) and in a rich environment (many landmarks) whilst their eye movements were recorded. Looking times towards landmarks were compared to TD children aged 6, 8 and 10 years. Changes in attention to landmarks during the learning process were also recorded. RESULTS: The WS group made fewer looks to landmarks overall, but all participants looked for longer at landmarks that were at junctions and along the paths of the maze than landmarks that were in the distance. Few differences were observed in route learning between the sparse and rich environments. In contrast to the TD groups, those in the WS group were as likely to look at non-unique landmarks as landmarks at junctions and on paths. DISCUSSION: The current results demonstrate that attention to landmarks during route learning reflects the types of landmarks remembered in memory tasks, that individuals with WS can learn a route if given sufficient exposure, but that this is accomplished within the context of an impaired ability to select appropriate landmarks.

Type: Article
Title: Route-learning strategies in typical and atypical development; eye tracking reveals atypical landmark selection in Williams syndrome
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1111/jir.12331
Publisher version: http://doi.org/10.1111/jir.12331
Language: English
Additional information: © 2016 MENCAP and International Association of the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Farran, EK; Formby, S; Daniyal, F; Holmes, T; Van Herwegen, J; (2016) Route-learning strategies in typical and atypical development; eye tracking reveals atypical landmark selection in Williams syndrome. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research , 60 (10) pp. 933-944. 10.1111/jir.12331, which has been published in final form at http://doi.org/10.1111/jir.12331. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.
Keywords: Williams syndrome, eye tracking, navigation, spatial cognition
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Learning and Leadership
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1517989
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