The influence of picture book design on visual attention of children with autism: a pilot study.

Taking 22 children with mild and moderate autism as subjects and using the TobiiX 120 eye-tracker to record their eye movements in visual search of images in picture books, the characteristics of the process of autistic children viewing picture books were explored. Two measures, fixation counts and gaze duration, were used alongside attention heatmap, to explore the visual patterns among children with autism viewing two types of researcher-made picture books and an ordinary picture book. Using a within-subject design, it was found that children with autism could sustain longer gaze duration and have more fixation points on the effective area of the picture book content when viewing researcher-made picture books than when viewing the ordinary picture book, suggesting better visual attention to single-object and single-pattern picture books. The study offers insights and support for related picture book reading and teaching in the future.

The effect of background elements of pictures on the visual attention among ASD children with intellectual disabilities, children with intellectual disabilities and typical development: Evidence from eye-tracking and fMRI.

Traditional picture books for children come with colourful images and a multitude of elements to attract attention and increase the reading interest of typical-developing (TD) children. However, children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are less capable of filtering out unimportant elements in pictures and focusing on social items (e.g., human faces). This study proposed that the removal of background and less important elements in the pictures of children's storybooks could facilitate better attention and enhance children with ASD's focus on the main object and thus the intended meaning of the storybook. We adopted pictures from a well-known children's book and modified them by removing the inessential background elements. Then, ASD children with intellectual disabilities (ASD+ID) (n = 40), children with ID (n = 38) and TD (n = 40) were asked to view the original and modified pictures in an eye-tracking experiment, respectively. Additionally, brain activation of ASD+ID participants (n = 10) was recorded as they were viewing those pictures in an fMRI scan. Eye-tracking found that ASD+ID children viewed the modified pictures with significantly longer average fixations, fewer fixations, fewer saccades, and higher fixation/saccade duration ratio. Contrary to the original pictures, no significant differences were found among ASD+ID, ID only and TD. Especially, ASD+ID group showed highly similar visual patterns to the TD participants when viewing the modified pictures and particularly focusing on the main character in the pictures. Additional fMRI evidence on ASD+ID group also revealed that modified pictures were associated with enhanced activation in bilateral fusiform gyri as compared to those from original pictures, which might suggest increased visual attention. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed in light of our findings.

The influence of social education level on cybersecurity awareness and behaviour: a comparative study of university students and working graduates.

A multitude of studies have suggested potential factors that influence internet security awareness (ISA). Some, for example, used GDP and nationality to explain different ISA levels in other countries but yielded inconsistent results. This study proposed an extended knowledge-attitude-behaviour (KAB) model, which postulates an influence of the education level of society at large is a moderator to the relationship between knowledge and attitude. Using exposure to a full-time working environment as a proxy for the influence, it was hypothesized that significant differences would be found in the attitude and behaviour dimensions across groups with different conditions of exposure and that exposure to full-time work plays a moderating role in KAB. To test the hypotheses, a large-scale survey adopting the Human Aspects of Information Security Questionnaire (HAIS-Q) was conducted with three groups of participants, namely 852 Year 1-3 students, 325 final-year students (age = 18-25) and 475 full-time employees (age = 18-50) in two cities of China. MANOVA and subsequent PROCESS regression analyses found a significant negative moderating effect of work exposure, which confirmed the proposed model. However, the effect was more pervasive than expected and moderation was found in the interaction between work exposure and all three ISA dimensions. The social influence does not only reshape the cybersecurity attitude of the highly educated, but also knowledge and behaviour. Findings contribute theoretically, methodologically and practically, offering novel perspectives on ISA research and prompting new strategies to respond to human factors.

How education level influences internet security knowledge, behaviour, and attitude: a comparison among undergraduates, postgraduates and working graduates.

During the pandemic, the prevailing online learning has brought tremendous benefits to the education field. However, it has also become a target for cybercriminals. Cybersecurity awareness (CSA) or Internet security awareness in the education sector turns out to be critical to mitigating cybersecurity risks. However, previous research indicated that using education level alone to judge CSA level received inconsistent results. This study postulated Social Educational Level (SEL) as a moderator with an extended Knowledge-Attitude-Behaviour model, used students' year level as a proxy for the impact of education level, and used work exposure for the influence of social education level, to compare CSA among undergraduates, postgraduates and working graduates. The participants in the study were divided into six groups, namely year 1 university students, year 2-3university students, final-year students, postgraduate students, young working graduates, and experienced working graduates. The Human Aspects of Information Security Questionnaire was used to conduct a large-scale survey. The multivariate regression model analysis showed significant differences among the knowledge, attitude and behaviour dimensions across groups with different conditions of year-level and work exposure. However, it was found that SEL played a more significant role than an individual's education level. The study suggested that a greater endeavour be committed to educating the public at large together with individuals, institutes, corporate and governments to improve the national CSA level.

Data on how job satisfaction and perceived value of CSR demotivate undesirable job habits during a crisis.

This dataset was collected one year after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic from December 2020 to January 2021 in Macao Special Administrative Region, China. The aim was to investigate the behaviour changes of employees working in the service industry under the stress of pandemic, and the roles of job satisfaction and corporate social responsibility (CSR) as individual and organizational mediators respectively at alleviating undesirable job habits. Data collection was done both offline and online due to stringent pandemic preventive measures during the collection period. Respondents of this survey included employees in different sectors of the service industry, for instance, travel agencies, hotels, casinos, food and beverage, and retails. A total of 895 responses were collected, in which 23 responses were removed during data cleaning, and 872 responses were retained in the dataset. The dataset can serve as the base of reference for future studies on employee habit change, both within and under crisis. It can also serve as a reference for future studies that examined effective ways of minimizing negative job habit changes that ensued from crises.