title: Brief Report: Joint Attention and Information Processing in Children with Higher Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders.
abstract: Theory suggests that information processing during joint attention may be atypical in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This hypothesis was tested in a study of school-aged children with higher functioning ASD and groups of children with symptoms of ADHD or typical development. The results indicated that the control groups displayed significantly better recognition memory for pictures studied in an initiating joint attention (IJA) rather than responding to joint attention (RJA) condition. This effect was not evident in the ASD group. The ASD group also recognized fewer pictures from the IJA condition than controls, but not the RJA condition. Atypical information processing may be a marker of the continued effects of joint attention disturbance in school aged children with ASD.
authors.affiliation: School of Education, University of California (UC) Davis, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA, 95825, USA. pcmundy@ucdavis.edu.|MIND Institute, University of California (UC) Davis, Davis, CA, USA. pcmundy@ucdavis.edu.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mundy
authors.affiliation: Division of Computer and Software Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Kwanguk
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: School of Education, University of California (UC) Davis, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA, 95825, USA.
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: McIntyre
authors.affiliation: School of Education, University of California (UC) Davis, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA, 95825, USA.
authors.forename: Lindsay
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lerro
authors.affiliation: Nuance Communications Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, USA.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jarrold
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D000067877:Autism Spectrum Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D063367:Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder; Information processing; Joint attention; Social cognition