Flanker Task Visual Eye Tracking Performance Measures: Assessment of Individual Disability Classifications Sensitivity Detection in Cumulative Response Learning and RT

Abstract

Individuals with disabilities often require accommodative technologies in order to help facilitate their leaning during their undergraduate college years. However, dependent upon the type of disability that an individual might experience, their accommodative needs may he rather unique. However, despite the individual differences that people exhibit, visual eye tracking has been shown to be rather sensitive in detecting similar eye movement behavioral signatures that can be used to group/categories people without knowing their underlying individual disability with fairly good accuracy. Our , neuropsychology research team has been evaluating over the last 4-years, how accurate and sensitive a Flanker eye tracking task is when combined with visual eye tracking technology (VETT) to characterize differences in a diverse subset of individuals with . disabilities, when compared to non-disabled individuals. The present study evaluates the eye movement behavioral differences in the participant's reaction time (RT) and their cumulative responses (CR) across the Flanker task as a function of gender and type of disability (i.e., 1) learning disabilities [LD], 2) emotional/psychiatric conditions [EPC], 3) orthopedic/mobility impairments [EMI], 4) attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders [AD/HD] and 5) health impairments [HI]. However, most national data lacks the inclusion of students with multiple disabilities [MD]). The study was conducted through our OSSD office and the researchers were triple blinded from the individuals ensuring anonymity and all participant data were coded. The preliminary results obtained suggest that the VETT can be used to characterize individual and group difference between gender and disability type reasonably well. This suggests that the Flanker task combined with VETT can be used to assess and perhaps effectively prescribe a match-to-sample set of accommodations for undergraduate college students that have disabilities. The VETT assessment can help to justify more accommodative technology needs within a given college and will directly benefit students with disabilities along their undergraduate education.