Differences in perception in autism spectrum disorder

Question 1

What is perception?

Answer 1

Perception is the interpretation of sensory input (5 senses)

Question 2

Why be interested in perception in autism?

Answer 2

Perception is a fundamental building block of more complex cognitive and behavioural processes

Question 3

Enhanced perceptual functioning (Mottron et al., 2006)

Answer 3

Perceptual processing is superior in autism, it is hard to control and disrupts other activities

Question 4

Pitch discrimination (Bonnel et al., 2003)

Answer 4

Autistic individuals showed superior performance

Question 5

Auditory discrimination

Answer 5

• 1 in 5 autistic adolescents had enhanced frequency discrimination
• Characterised by average intellectual ability and delayed language

Question 6

EPF theory - Universal?

Answer 6

Jones et al. (2009) suggested that this is is not the case and there may be impaired as well as enhanced perceptual processing in autism

Question 7

EPF theory - Unique?

Answer 7

Largely untested in other developmental disorders

Question 8

EPF theory - Explanatory power?

Answer 8

Good at explaining sensory sensitivities but relies on a developmental basis

Question 9

Weak central coherence (Frith, 1989)

Answer 9

Autistic children have a local processing bias at the expense of processing the whole picture

• Superior at perceiving details and features

Question 10

Embedded figures test

Answer 10

Autistic children are better and quicker at finding the embedded figure than non-autistic children

Question 11

WCC theory - Universal?

Answer 11

Not all autistic individuals show evidence of WCC (Booth, 2010)

Question 12

WCC theory - Unique?

Answer 12

Individuals with anorexia and Williams syndrome also show WCC

Question 13

WCC theory - Explanatory power?

Answer 13

Doesn’t explain all symptoms however it may explain some restricted and repetitive behaviours

Question 14

Atypical social orienting (Dawson et al., 1998)

Answer 14

Autistic individuals fail to become face experts due to reduced orienting to social information

Question 15

Atypical looking to the face (Kiln et al., 2002)

Answer 15

Eye tracker monitoring gaze showed autistic people looked less at eyes and more at bodies and objects

Question 16

Atypical social orienting - Universal?

Answer 16

Many studies don’t show impaired looking to the eyes in autism

Question 17

Atypical social orienting - Unique?

Answer 17

Individuals with Williams syndrome also show impaired looking at faces

Question 18

Atypical social orienting - Explanatory power?

Answer 18

Explains social communication difficulties but doesn’t explain restricted and repetitive behaviours

Question 19

Multiple deficit account

Answer 19

Proposes that behavioural symptoms have distinct causes

Question 20

Support for multiple deficit account

Answer 20

A single cause would mean all symptoms start at same time, but social symptoms appear earlier than restricted and repetitive behaviours