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Locally oriented perception with intact global processing among adolescents with high-functioning autism: evidence
Laurent Mottron1, Jacob A Burack, Grace Iarocci
1Clinique spécialisée des Troubles Envahissants du Développement, Hôpital Rivière-des-Prairies, Montréal, Canada. mottronl@istar.ca
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and Allied Disciplines
|September 10, 2003
Summary
Individuals with high-functioning autism showed typical performance in global and configural processing but excelled at disembedding visual tasks. These findings challenge the Weak Central Coherence theory
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- The Weak Central Coherence (WCC) theory predicts individuals with autism focus on details over the big picture.
- Existing research presents conflicting evidence regarding local target detection and global processing biases in autism.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate global-local visual processing in adolescents with high-functioning autism.
- To test predictions of the Weak Central Coherence theory in a carefully matched cohort.
Main Methods:
- Adolescents with high-functioning autism and typically developing peers were matched for age and IQ.
- Participants completed hierarchical, configural, and disembedding visual processing tasks.
Main Results:
- No significant group differences were observed in hierarchical or configural processing tasks.
- Adolescents with autism demonstrated faster performance in a rapid perceptual disembedding task compared to controls.
Conclusions:
- Findings support superior performance in embedded figure detection for individuals with autism.
- Results suggest that the concepts of local bias and global impairment in WCC theory may require reevaluation.