title: Anthropomorphic bias found in typically developing children is not found in children with autistic spectrum disorder.
abstract: The anthropomorphic bias describes the finding that the perceived naturalness of a biological motion decreases as the human-likeness of a computer-animated agent increases. To investigate the anthropomorphic bias in autistic children, human or cartoon characters were presented with biological and artificial motions side by side on a touchscreen. Children were required to touch one that would grow while the other would disappear, implicitly rewarding their choice. Only typically developing controls depicted the expected preference for biological motion when rendered with human, but not cartoon, characters. Despite performing the task to report a preference, children with autism depicted neither normal nor reversed anthropomorphic bias, suggesting that they are not sensitive to the congruence of form and motion information when observing computer-animated agents' actions.
authors.affiliation: Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Marseille, France tchamina@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Thierry
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Chaminade
authors.affiliation: Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Delphine
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rosset
authors.affiliation: Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Da Fonseca
authors.affiliation: Carnegie Mellon University, Robotics Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Jessica K
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Hodgins
authors.affiliation: Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Deruelle
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000886:Anthropometry; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002359:Cartoons as Topic / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D009039:Motion Perception; D009040:Motion Pictures; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D012938:Social Perception
keywords: Biological motion; computer-animated characters