A specific autistic trait that modulates visuospatial illusion susceptibility
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Although several accounts of autism have predicted that the disorder should be associated with a decreased susceptibility to visual illusions, previous experimental results have been mixed. This study examined whether a link between autism and illusion susceptibility can be more convincingly demonstrated by assessing the relationships between susceptibility and the extent to which several individual autistic traits are exhibited as a continuum in a population of college students. A significant relationship was observed between the systemizing trait and susceptibility to a subset of the tested illusions (the rod-and-frame, Roelofs, Ponzo and Poggendorff illusions). These results provide support for the idea that autism involves an imbalance between the processing of local and global cues, more heavily weighted toward local features than in the typically developed individual.
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Walter et al. (2009) found that susceptibility to the Zöllner, Rod-and-frame, Roelofs, Ponzo and Poggendorff illusions related to score on the SQ, such that immunity to these illusions was associated with a high Systemizing Quotient.
“Walter et al.'s (2009) key result was that susceptibility to the Zöllner, Rod-and-frame, Roelofs, Ponzo and Poggendorff illusions related to score on the SQ, such that immunity to these illusions was associated with a high Systemizing Quotient.”
From Vision in autism spectrum disorders (2009) · cites this paper as Walter et al., 2009
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- Authors
- Walter, E., Dassonville, P., & Bochsler, T. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Oregon (US)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Corresponding author
- Dassonville, Paul
- ORCID
- Dassonville, Paul
- Venue
- Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
- Published
- 2008-08-08
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 339-349
- ISSN
- 0162-3257 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-3432
- PMC
- PMC2676903
- OpenAlex
- W1995733852
- Cited by
- 95
- References
- 78
- Citations by year
- 2026: 17 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 1.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of General Medical Sciences (5 T32GM 07257, T32GM007257)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, autistic traits, illusion susceptibility, systemizing, global-local processing, Ponzo illusion, Poggendorff illusion, university students
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Autistic Disorder, Cues, Female, Humans, Illusions, Male, Optical Illusions, Orientation, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Photic Stimulation, Space Perception, Task Performance and Analysis, Visual Perception, Young Adult
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