Study of wayfinding strategies of people with intellectual disabilities using an eye-tracking approach

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 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. (c) 2024 Socie<acute accent>te<acute accent> Franc,aise de Psychologie. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.