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Overselectivity, developmental level, and overtraining in autistic and normal children

L R Schover, C D Newsom

    Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
    |January 1, 1976
    PubMed
    Summary
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    Autistic children performed similarly to neurotypical children on a visual discrimination task, suggesting cognitive developmental lag rather than overselective attention deficits. Both groups showed learning improvements with overtraining.

    Area of Science:

    • Cognitive Psychology
    • Developmental Psychology
    • Neurodevelopmental Disorders

    Background:

    • Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by social and communication challenges, and often exhibits atypical sensory processing.
    • Previous research suggested overselective attention as a core deficit in autism, impacting information processing.
    • Understanding the nature of attention in autism is crucial for developing effective interventions.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To investigate visual discrimination abilities in autistic children compared to neurotypical controls.
    • To examine the role of relevant and redundant cues (form, color, size) in visual learning for both groups.
    • To explore the relationship between mental age, learning breadth, and dimensional preferences in autistic children.

    Main Methods:

    Related Experiment Videos

    • A visual discrimination task was administered to 13 autistic children and 13 age- and mental-age-matched neurotypical children.
    • The task involved relevant and redundant cues of form, color, and size.
    • Overtraining (50 additional trials) was employed to assess learning plasticity.

    Main Results:

    • No significant differences were found between autistic and neurotypical children in trials to criterion or breadth of learning.
    • Both groups demonstrated increased breadth of learning after overtraining.
    • Form was the preferred cue for both groups, and mental age correlated with learning breadth within each group.
    • Verbal and nonverbal autistic children showed comparable performance and dimensional preferences, with nonverbal autistics matching controls.

    Conclusions:

    • The findings challenge the notion of overselective attention as a specific deficit in autism.
    • Results support the interpretation of attention differences in autism as part of a broader cognitive developmental lag.
    • Cognitive development, rather than a specific attentional deficit, may better explain observed behaviors in autistic children.