A systematic review and meta‐analysis of atypical visual attention towards non‐social stimuli in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract Research on attention towards non‐social stimuli in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has increased over the past decade; however, findings have been inconsistent. It has been suggested that stimuli relating to common circumscribed interests (CIs) elicit more attention than non‐CI related stimuli. This meta‐analysis synthesizes results from 31 studies that compared attention towards non‐social stimuli in children with ASD under the age of five with typically developing (TD) controls using eye‐tracking. Additional subgroup analysis comparing studies that employed non‐social stimuli related to CIs frequently reported in adults with ASD to studies using non‐CI related stimuli were conducted. Meta‐regressions with age, sex, stimulus dimension, nonverbal DQ, and symptom severity were conducted. Results show small ( g = 0.39) but significantly higher attention towards non‐social stimuli for the ASD group. However, when studies were split based on stimulus type no significant differences for non‐CI related stimuli was found. Meanwhile studies employing CI related stimuli reported significant large effects on attention allocation ( g = 0.69). None of the conducted regressions reached significance. The findings show increased non‐social attention in children with ASD is driven by CI related content rather than a general non‐social attentional bias. The findings and future research directions are discussed.