Eye movements reveal no immediate "WOW" ("which one's weird") effect in autism spectrum disorder

Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2012;65(6):1139-50. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2011.644305. Epub 2012 Feb 23.

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developed (TD) adult participants viewed pairs of scenes for a simple "spot the difference" (STD) and a complex "which one's weird" (WOW) task. There were no group differences in the STD task. In the WOW task, the ASD group took longer to respond manually and to begin fixating the target "weird" region. Additionally, as indexed by the first-fixation duration into the target region, the ASD group failed to "pick up" immediately on what was "weird". The findings are discussed with reference to the complex information processing theory of ASD (Minshew & Goldstein, 1998 ).

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Attention / physiology*
  • Child
  • Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / physiopathology*
  • Discrimination Learning / physiology*
  • Eye Movements / physiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Photic Stimulation
  • Reaction Time / physiology
  • Visual Perception / physiology*
  • Young Adult