Étude des stratégies d’orientation des personnes présentant une déficience intellectuelle par une approche oculométrique

Introduction

People with intellectual disabilities (ID) experience difficulties in memorizing and selecting landmarks.

Objective

The aim of this study was to investigate differences in landmark observation during a path learning task in a virtual environment.

Method

The eye movements of 19 people with ID and 11 typically developing individuals were compared in a path learning task involving 12 Y-intersections.

Results

The results showed that participants with ID were more likely to observe areas without landmarks, and had a lower observation time for landmarks congruent with the direction of path. Similarly, the concordance between the direction taken by the gaze (right or left) and the directional response emitted by the participant (to the right or to the left) was higher in typically developing individuals.

Conclusion

This study highlights the presence of difficulties from the very first visual interaction with the environment, and contributes to the knowledge needed to design navigational aid systems adapted to people with ID. New perspectives for research and remediation in this field are also addressed.