Driving hazard perception in individuals with ASD

Background:

Klin, Jones, Schultz and Volkmar (2003) identify driving as a ‘challenging task’ for individuals with ASD. However, an increasing number of individuals with ASD have been applying for driving licenses. One aspect of driving which might pose a particular challenge is hazard perception, as many hazards involve the perception or anticipation of a person’s intentions and movements. Baron-Cohen (2002) argues that individuals with ASD (and typically developing males to a lesser extent) are relatively poor at empathising, which includes processing of social information.

Objectives:

This study aimed to determine whether individuals with ASD have difficulty identifying driving hazards, and further, whether they have particular difficulty when the hazard is social in nature i.e. contains a human figure.

Methods:

Twenty-three adult males with HFA or AS, and 44 matched comparison participants (21 male, 23 adult female) viewed 10 video clips containing driving hazards. In half of the clips the cause of the hazard was a visible person (social), whilst in the other half the cause was a car (non-social). Participants were instructed to respond with a button-press as soon as they saw a hazard. They then identified the hazard verbally.

Results:

Participants with ASD correctly responded to fewer social hazards than the males (U=132, p<.01) and females (U=167, p<.05). However, for non-social hazards, there was no difference between participants with ASD and male comparison participants. Participants with ASD were also slower to respond than female comparison participants (p<.05). Hazard perception performance correlated with scores on the AQ (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001) but not age or IQ.

Conclusions:

Individuals with ASD were slower and less able to identify driving hazards. AQ scores related negatively with success in this task, consistent with Baron-Cohen’s EMB theory of autism.