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Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Gepubliceerd in:

01-11-2006 | Original Paper

The Perception of Animacy in Young Children with Autism

Auteurs: M. D. Rutherford, Bruce F. Pennington, Sally J. Rogers

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders | Uitgave 8/2006

Abstract

Visual perception may be a developmental prerequisite to some types of social understanding. The ability to perceive social information given visual motion appears to develop early. However, children with autism have profound deficits in social cognitive function and may fail to see social motion in the same way that typically developing children do. We tested the hypothesis that children with autism fail to discriminate animate motion, using a novel paradigm involving simple geometric figures. The subjects were 23 children with autism (c.a. 70.7 mos.), 18 children with other developmental disabilities (c.a. 68.2 mos.), and 18 typically developing children (c.a. 46.4 mos.). Children saw two circles moving on a screen and were rewarded for identifying the one that moved as if animate. A control condition required children to identify the heavier of two objects. Children with autism initially showed a deficit in categorizing objects as animate (though no deficit on the control task), but showed no deficit in this ability after they had reached criterion in the training phase. These results are discussed in terms of the social orienting theory of autism, and the possibility that animacy perception might be preserved in autism, even if it is not used automatically.

vorige artikel Utilization of Lymphoblastoid Cell Lines as a System for the Molecular Modeling of Autism

volgende artikel Early Predictors of Communication Development in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Joint Attention, Imitation, and Toy Play

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Titel: The Perception of Animacy in Young Children with Autism
Auteurs: M. D. Rutherford
Bruce F. Pennington
Sally J. Rogers
Publicatiedatum: 01-11-2006
Uitgeverij: Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders / Uitgave 8/2006
Print ISSN: 0162-3257
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-3432
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0136-8

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