Brief Report: Information Processing Speed is Intact in Autism but not Correlated with Measured Intelligence

Speed of information processing, as measured by inspection time (IT), is a robust predictor of intellectual functioning. However, among individuals with autism and low IQ scores, IT has been reported to be discrepantly fast, and equal to that of high IQ typically developing children (Scheuffgen et al. in Dev Psychopathol 12: 83–90, 2000). The present investigation replicates and extends this study by examining IT and its relationship to IQ in a higher functioning (average range mean IQ) group of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) versus matched controls. Though IT was not significantly faster in the ASD group than in the matched control group, the relationship between IT and IQ was uniquely discrepant for the ASD group, partially corroborating and extending previous findings.