Abstract
A study of visual discrimination learning is described comparing 20 autistic children with 20 suffering Down's syndrome and 20 normal controls. The subjects, all boys, were trained to discriminate between two visual stimuli varying in color, form, and size. They were then tested on the three parameters presented separately and in combinations of two. It was found that normal children and those who were classified as verbal autistic did not differ in overall performance or in the effective use of double cues, but were superior to retardates, and retardates were superior to nonverbal autistic children. There was no cue dominance in normal, verbal autistic, and retarded children, but size and color were significantly preferred to form by the nonverbal autistic group.
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Computer support for this research was obtained from NIMH Grant MH-06645-11, principal investigator Kenneth Mark Colby, Senior Research Associate, Department of Computer Science, Stanford University.
This research was originally presented as a master's thesis to San Francisco State University by Patricia Kovattana. Requests for reprints should be sent to Patricia Kovattana, 535 15th Avenue, Menlo Park, California 94025.
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Kovattana, P.M., Kraemer, H.C. Response to multiple visual cues of color, size, and form by autistic children. J Autism Dev Disord 4, 251–261 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02115231
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02115231