Face recognition in children with a pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDDNOS) affects social and communication skills.
• Face recognition is a crucial aspect of social cognition.
• Understanding face processing in PDDNOS can offer insights into developmental differences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare face recognition speed and accuracy in children with PDDNOS versus typically developing children.
• To investigate the cognitive strategies employed during face processing in PDDNOS.
• To explore the implications for theories of mental representation development.

Main Methods:

• Administered computerized reaction time tasks to assess face recognition and abstract pattern recognition.
• Included a clinical group of 26 children (7-10 years) with PDDNOS.
• Included a control group of 65 typically developing children (7-10 years).

Main Results:

• Typically developing children recognized faces significantly faster than difficult abstract patterns.
• Children with PDDNOS showed similar reaction times for face recognition and difficult abstract patterns.
• PDDNOS group's face recognition was less automatic and more attention-demanding.

Conclusions:

• Children with PDDNOS may utilize a less automatic, more effortful strategy for face recognition.
• This finding contributes to understanding cognitive differences in PDDNOS.
• Results support theories on the development of coherent mental representations.