Processing of compound visual stimuli by children with autism and Asperger syndrome
Abstract
A typical modes of visual processing are common in individuals with autism. In particular, and unlike typically developing children, children with autism tend to process the parts of a complex object as a priority, rather than attending to the object as a whole. This bias for local processing is likely to be due to difficulties in assembling subparts into a coherent whole, as proposed by Frith ( 1989) using the term “weak central coherence” or WCC. This study was aimed to better characterize the processing of complex visual stimuli by children with autism. Thirteen children with autistic spectrum disorders were individually paired with children of two control groups, one matched on verbal mental age (VMA) and one matched on chronological age (CA). Participants from the three groups were tested in two tasks. The first task involved hierarchical global/local stimuli, inspired by Navon ( 1977). The second task employed compound face‐like or geometrical stimuli. This task emphasized the processing of configural properties of the stimuli (i.e., spatial relationships). Children from the three groups showed a perceptual bias favouring the global dimension of the stimuli in the first task. By contrast, children with autism were deficient compared to normal children for the processing of the configural dimensions of the stimuli in the second task. These results suggest that visual cognition of children with autism is characterized by a dissociation between global and configural processing, with global processing being preserved and configural processing being altered in these children, therefore delineating the extents and limits of the WCC theory (Frith, 1989).
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When explicitly directed to use global focus, individuals with ASD perform the same as TD peers.
“when explicitly directed to use global focus (i.e., identify the large letters), individuals with ASD perform the same as their TD peers (Deruelle et al., 2006; Mottron et al., 2003; Mottron et al., 2006; Plaisted et al., 1999; Wang et al., 2004)”
From Behavioral, Perceptual, and Neural Alterations in Sensory and Multisensory Function in Autism Spectrum Disorder (2015) · cites this paper as Deruelle et al., 2006
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Vision in autism spectrum disorders
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- Authors
- Deruelle, C., Rondan, C., Gepner, B., & Fagot, J.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- CNRS, Mediterranean Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences Marseille France
- Montperrin Hospital Aix en Provence France
- Corresponding author
- Deruelle, Christine
- Venue
- International Journal of Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2006-04
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 97-106
- ISSN
- 0020-7594 (ISSN-L)
- 1464-066X
- OpenAlex
- W2037561589
- Cited by
- 58
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 2.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- International Journal of Psychology (publishedVersion)
- HAL AMU (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, Asperger syndrome, visual processing, weak central coherence, global-local processing, configural processing, face perception, hierarchical stimuli, children
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