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Perceptual perspective-taking and seriation abilities in high-functioning children with autism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Nurit Yirmiya*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology School of Education, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Marian Sigman
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
Daphna Zacks
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Nurit Yirmiya, Department of Psychology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel 91905.

Abstract

This study compared a group of 18 high-functioning children with autism (9–16 years of age) and a group of 14 normally developing children (9–14 years of age) on their abilities to take the perceptual perspective of someone else and to seriate objects based on length, size, weight, and color. Results indicated that the high-functioning children with autism were as able as the normally developing children to seriate the various objects. In contrast, significant differences emerged on the perceptual perspective-taking tasks with the high-functioning children with autism as a group performing less well than the normally developing children. However, the majority of autistic children showed good perspective-taking ability. The implications of these results to our understanding of autism are discussed.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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