Orienting of visual attention among persons with autism spectrum disorders: reading versus responding to symbolic cues.
BACKGROUND
Are persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) slower than typically developing individuals to read the meaning of a symbolic cue in a visual orienting paradigm?


METHODS
Participants with ASD (n = 18) and performance mental age (PMA) matched typically developing children (n = 16) completed two endogenous orienting conditions in which the cue exposure time and response preparation time were manipulated within a consistent series of cue-target stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs).


RESULTS
Participants with ASD displayed facilitation effects at all SOAs, whereas typically developing children displayed facilitation effects only at shorter SOAs. The magnitude of the facilitation effect was greater for the group with ASD at 400ms SOA. Both groups showed similar effects of condition, with similar patterns of facilitation in both conditions.


CONCLUSIONS
Persons with ASD were not slower to read the symbolic cue, as the effect was elicited by brief cues within longer SOAs before target onset. The participants with ASD were also less efficient in using the predictability of the cues to guide responding. The difficulties of participants with ASD on endogenous orienting occur at the response selection level, not the perceptual level.
Landry
Oriane
O
sychology Department, Room 7418, Social Sciences Centre, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5C2, Canada. olandry2@uwo.ca
Mitchell
Peter L
PL
Burack
Jacob A
JA
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009949:Orientation; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013561:Symbolism; D014796:Visual Perception