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Friday, May 8, 2009: 1:30 PM
Northwest Hall Room 5 (Chicago Hilton)
Background: Individuals with autism have been reported to have impairments relative to age and ability-matched controls on tests of facial recognition. It has been proposed that difficulty with face recognition may be related to a more general problem with configural processing or, alternatively, a problem with prototype formation and expertise development.
Objectives: The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between face recognition abilities and measures of configural processing and concept formation in individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA) as compared to age and ability-matched controls with typical development (TD).
Methods: Participants were 36 HFA (10–38 years; mean = 18.9 years) and 30 age and IQ-matched TD controls (10-42 years; mean = 20.9 years). All participants received the Benton Facial Recognition test (BFRT), the Block Design subtest (BD) of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI), the Embedded Figures Task (EFT), and the Vygotsky Concept Formation test (VCF). Autism diagnosis was established by the ADOS and ADI, and confirmed by expert clinical impression. All participants attained Full Scale IQ scores>80 (HFA mean= VIQ 104.3; PIQ 105.8; FSIQ 105.6; TD mean= VIQ 107.4; PIQ 107.0; FSIQ 108.4).
Results: There was a significant difference in performance between groups on the BFRT [F(1,64)=17.14, p=.000], with individuals with HFA performing more poorly than TD individuals. HFA participants had significantly lower total correct scores than the TD participants on the EFT, [F(1,64)=7.3, p=.008]. There were no significant group differences on BD or a measure of concept formation from the VCF test. There was a significant positive correlation between BFRT raw scores and EFT total correct scores for the HFA participants (r = .43, p < .01); no significant correlation between these measures was obtained for the TD participants. There were no other significant correlations. Further exploration of the relationship between these measures using a multiple regression model indicated that diagnosis [t(63) = -3.21, p = .002] and performance on EFT [t(63) = 2.91, p = .005] are significant predictors of performance on the BFRT (R2=.31).
Conclusions: These individuals with autism and without intellectual disability exhibited poor performance on both the Benton Facial Recognition Test and the Embedded Figures Test with positive correlations between these scores. The positive correlation between these scores suggests that these individuals with autism are using local processing abilities or feature-based processes to identify faces. The lack of correlation between face processing measures and more general processing measures may mean that these are unrelated domains or entirely separate and unrelated processes in the brain or these measures have limitations that obscure relationships.
Objectives: The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between face recognition abilities and measures of configural processing and concept formation in individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA) as compared to age and ability-matched controls with typical development (TD).
Methods: Participants were 36 HFA (10–38 years; mean = 18.9 years) and 30 age and IQ-matched TD controls (10-42 years; mean = 20.9 years). All participants received the Benton Facial Recognition test (BFRT), the Block Design subtest (BD) of the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI), the Embedded Figures Task (EFT), and the Vygotsky Concept Formation test (VCF). Autism diagnosis was established by the ADOS and ADI, and confirmed by expert clinical impression. All participants attained Full Scale IQ scores>80 (HFA mean= VIQ 104.3; PIQ 105.8; FSIQ 105.6; TD mean= VIQ 107.4; PIQ 107.0; FSIQ 108.4).
Results: There was a significant difference in performance between groups on the BFRT [F(1,64)=17.14, p=.000], with individuals with HFA performing more poorly than TD individuals. HFA participants had significantly lower total correct scores than the TD participants on the EFT, [F(1,64)=7.3, p=.008]. There were no significant group differences on BD or a measure of concept formation from the VCF test. There was a significant positive correlation between BFRT raw scores and EFT total correct scores for the HFA participants (r = .43, p < .01); no significant correlation between these measures was obtained for the TD participants. There were no other significant correlations. Further exploration of the relationship between these measures using a multiple regression model indicated that diagnosis [t(63) = -3.21, p = .002] and performance on EFT [t(63) = 2.91, p = .005] are significant predictors of performance on the BFRT (R2=.31).
Conclusions: These individuals with autism and without intellectual disability exhibited poor performance on both the Benton Facial Recognition Test and the Embedded Figures Test with positive correlations between these scores. The positive correlation between these scores suggests that these individuals with autism are using local processing abilities or feature-based processes to identify faces. The lack of correlation between face processing measures and more general processing measures may mean that these are unrelated domains or entirely separate and unrelated processes in the brain or these measures have limitations that obscure relationships.