Visual search targeting either local or global perceptual processes differs as a function of autistic-like traits in the typically developing population.
Relative to low scorers, high scorers on the autism-spectrum quotient (AQ) show enhanced performance on the embedded figures test and the radial frequency search task (RFST), which has been attributed to both enhanced local processing and differences in combining global percepts. We investigate the role of local and global processing further using the RFST in four experiments. High AQ adults maintained a consistent advantage in search speed across diverse target-distracter stimulus conditions. This advantage may reflect enhanced local processing of curvature in early stages of the form vision pathway and superior global detection of shape primitives. However, more probable is the presence of a superior search process that enables a consistent search advantage at both levels of processing.
School of Psychology (M304), University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia. renita.almeida1@gmail.com
Renita A
RA
Almeida
J Edwin
JE
Dickinson
Murray T
MT
Maybery
Johanna C
JC
Badcock
David R
DR
Badcock
D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000145:classification / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult