title: Detecting social and non-social changes in natural scenes: performance of children with and without autism spectrum disorders and typical adults.
abstract: We probed differences in the ability to detect and interpret social cues in adults and in children and young adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorders (ASD) by investigating the effect of various social and non-social contexts on the visual exploration of pictures of natural scenes. Children and adolescents relied more on social referencing cues in the scene as compared to adults, and in the presence of such cues, were less able to use other kinds of cues. Typically developing children and adolescents were no better than those with ASD at detecting changes within the various social contexts. Results suggest children and adolescents with ASD use relevant social cues while searching a scene just as typical children do.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Center for NeuroEngineering and Cognitive Science, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-4005, USA. brsheth@uh.edu
authors.forename: Bhavin R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Sheth
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Olayemi
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Olagbaju
authors.forename: Larry
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Varghese
authors.forename: Rosleen
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mansour
authors.forename: Stacy
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reddoch
authors.forename: Deborah A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Pearson
authors.forename: Katherine A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Loveland
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012938:Social Perception; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*