Stimulus Over-Selectivity

A phenomenon where an individual attends to a limited subset of available stimuli while ignoring other relevant cues in their environment. Stimulus over-selectivity is commonly observed in autistic individuals and people with intellectual disabilities, and has significant implications for AAC design. When AAC displays contain too many hotspots, icons, or visual elements, users prone to over-selectivity may fixate on certain items while failing to notice others, effectively reducing the functional vocabulary available to them. Best practices for visual scene displays recommend limiting hotspots to 2-4 per scene to minimize this risk and ensure that all communication options receive appropriate attention from the user.