“I know that face” – A comparison of face learning and recognition abilities in children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders, Developmental Delay, and Typical Development

Background: Face recognition is essential for effective socialisation and communication, however children with ASD have been shown to display deficits in face recognition. Most studies have focussed on unfamiliar face processing with little research on recognition of familiar faces and the process by which a face becomes familiar. Objectives: This set of studies aimed to provide a comprehensive account of recognition of unfamiliar faces, through face learning to recognition of familiar faces in ASD, DD and TD children aged 5-11 years. Methods: Forced choice recognition (FCR) tasks were used with all studies, requiring children to select the recognised face from a choice of two photographs. Unfamiliar face recognition involved 3-second video exposure followed by FCR. Face learning involved three days video exposure to a set of six faces with FCR tasks. Familiar face recognition involved recognition of familiar school staff in a FCR task. All FCR tasks included full-face photographs, internal and external face parts. 176 children participated across the three studies (ASD=56, DD=47, TD=73). Results: No ASD-specific deficits were found on any of the studies. All children (ASD, DD, TD) showed better recognition of unfamiliar faces by full and external face parts, and better recognition of familiar faces by full and internal face parts, indicating a difference in processing strategy with familiarity. All children showed learning of faces on all face parts except the youngest TD children, and DD children. Children with ASD showed similar processing strategy to TD and DD children and similar levels of recognition accuracy to DD controls. Conclusions: Children with ASD recognise faces using the same strategy as TD and DD children. Children with ASD show the same level of proficiency in face recognition as DD controls. In low task demand conditions no evidence of ASD specific deficits were found.