Assessment of stimulus overselectivity with tactile compound stimuli in children with autism.
Autistic and typical children mastered a simultaneous discrimination task with three sets of all-tactile compound stimuli. During training, responding to one stimulus (S+) resulted in rewards whereas responding to the alternative (S-) was extinguished. Test 1 was conducted with recombinations of S+ and S- elements. In Test 2, the test stimulus to which the child responded most in Test 1 was pitched against the training S+. In Test 1, all children responded exclusively to one test probe, spuriously implying stimulus overselectivity in both populations. However, in Test 2, the typical children responded mostly to the training S+ indicating control by both S+ elements; the autistic children responded to both stimuli indicating reduced control by the second S+ element (indicating overselectivity).
Ploog
Bertram O
BO
Department of Psychology, College of Staten Island, City University of New York, 2800 Victory Boulevard, 4S-105, Staten Island, NY 10314, USA. ploog@mail.csi.cuny.edu
Kim
Nina
N
D000293:Adolescent; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002755:Choice Behavior; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013239:Stereotyped Behavior; D014110:Touch