title: Social perception in children with autism: an attentional deficit?
abstract: Research suggests that the attentional deficits found in children with autism may be related to impairments in social functioning (e.g., Courchesne et al., 1994a, 1994b; Lewy & Dawson, 1992; Schreibman & Lovaas, 1973). In the present investigation, 14 children with autism, 14 mentally handicapped, and 14 typically functioning children participated in a study designed to investigate the effects of number of social cues on the ability to interpret social situations. Participants were shown videotaped vignettes of child-child interactions in which the number of cues leading to the correct interpretation of the story varied from one to four (i.e., tone, content, nonverbal, or nonverbal with object). Subjects were then asked a series of questions which varied in degree of complexity. Overall, results indicated that children with autism performed as well as both groups of comparison subjects on general attention questions (i.e., identification of number and gender of interactants) and social perception questions relating to stories containing one cue. However, children with autism performed more poorly than both comparison groups on social perception questions relating to stories containing multiple cues. Results are discussed in terms of an attentional dysfunction hypothesis of autism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0109, USA.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pierce
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Glad
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schreibman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D012919:Social Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D012938:Social Perception; D014705:Verbal Behavior