Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T09:34:33.636Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Intermodal perception of affect in persons with autism or Down syndrome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2009

Katherine A. Loveland ,
Belgin Tunali-Kotoski ,
Richard Chen ,
Kristin A. Brelsford ,
Juliana Ortegon  and
Deborah A. Pearson
Katherine A. Loveland*
Affiliation:
Center for Human Development Research, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, University of Texas-Houston, Health Science Center
Belgin Tunali-Kotoski
Affiliation:
Center for Human Development Research, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, University of Texas-Houston, Health Science Center
Richard Chen
Affiliation:
Center for Human Development Research, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, University of Texas-Houston, Health Science Center
Kristin A. Brelsford
Affiliation:
Center for Human Development Research, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, University of Texas-Houston, Health Science Center
Juliana Ortegon
Affiliation:
Center for Human Development Research, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, University of Texas-Houston, Health Science Center
Deborah A. Pearson
Affiliation:
Center for Human Development Research, University of Texas Medical School, Houston, University of Texas-Houston, Health Science Center
*
Katherine A. Loveland, Ph.D., Center for Human Development Research, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas Medical School-Houston, UTMSI-1300 Moursund Street, Houston, Texas 77030.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Persons with autism (n = 28) or Down syndrome (n = 30) took part in a study of the ability to detect intermodal correspondence between facial and vocal/linguistic information for affect. Participants viewed 24 split-screen images of an individual talking and displaying a different affect on each side of the display (happy, sad, angry, surprised, or neutral). The vocal track, matching one affect (i.e., one side of the split-screen) but not the other, was played from a central speaker. Subjects were asked to point to the side matching the vocal track. The vocal track was desynchronized with both sides, so that rhythmic synchrony was greatly reduced and subjects must use affect to make their choices. In the first control condition, rhythmic synchrony information was restored. In a second control condition, inanimate objects and their sounds were presented. In the experimental condition, when verbal mental age and IQ were taken into account, the autism group performed more poorly than did the Down syndrome group in detecting intermodal correspondence of face and voice. When rhythmic synchrony information was available, both groups' performances improved, with the Down syndrome group performing slightly better than the group with autism. There were no group differences in the condition using inanimate objects. Results suggest that persons with autism may have difficulty detecting intermodal correspondence of facial and vocal/linguistic affect.

Type
Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , Summer 1995 , pp. 409 - 418
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baron-Cohen, S., Leslie, A. M., & Frith, U. (1985). Does the autistic child have a “theory of mind”? Cognition, 21, 37–46.Google Scholar
Dawson, G., & Lewy, A. (1989a). Arousal, attention, and the socio-emotional impairments of individuals with autism. In Dawson, G. (Ed.), Autism: Nature, diagnosis, and treatment (pp. 49–74). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Dawson, G., & Lewy, A. (1989b). Reciprocal subcortical-cortical influences in autism: The role of attentional mechanisms. In Dawson, G. (Ed.), Autism: Nature, diagnosis, and treatment (pp. 144–173). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Fein, D., Tinder, P., & Waterhouse, L. (1979). Stimulus generalization in autistic and normal children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 20, 325–335.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ferrara, C., & Hill, S. (1980). The responsiveness of autistic children to the predictability of social and nonsocial toys. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 10, 51–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frith, U. (1989). Autism: Explaining the enigma. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Frith, U., & Baron-Cohen, S. (1987). Perception in autistic children. In Cohen, D. J. & Donnellan, A. M. (Eds.), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (pp. 85–102). Silver Spring, MA: Winston.Google Scholar
Gibson, E. J. (1969). Principles of perceptual learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Gibson, J. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Haviland, J. M., & Lelwica, M. (1987). The induced affect response: 10-week-old infants' responses to three emotion expressions. Developmental Psychology, 23, 97–104.Google Scholar
Hermelin, B. (1978). Images and language. In Rutter, M. & Schopler, E. (Eds.), Autism: A reappraisal of concept and treatment (pp. 141–154). New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hermelin, B., & O'Connor, N. (1970). Psychological experiments with autistic children. Oxford: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Hobson, R. P. (1989). Beyond cognition: A theory of autism. In Dawson, G. (Ed.), Autism: Nature, diagnosis, and treatment (pp. 22–48). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Hobson, R. P., Ouston, J., & Lee, A. (1988a). What's in a face? The case of autism. British Journal of Psychology, 79, 441–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobson, R. P., Ouston, J., & Lee, A. (1988b). Emotion recognition in autism: Coordinating faces and voices. Psychological Medicine, 18, 911–923.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hobson, R. P. (1993a). Understanding persons: The role of affect. In Baron-Cohen, S., Tager-Flusberg, H., & Cohen, D. (Eds.), Understanding other minds: Perspectives from autism (pp. 204–227). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hobson, R. P. (1993b). Autism and the development of mind. Hillsdale: LEA.Google Scholar
Leslie, A. M. (1987). Pretense and representation: The origins of “theory of mind.” Psychological Review, 94 (4), 412–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewy, A., & Dawson, G. (1992). Social stimulation and joint attention in young autistic children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 20, 555–566.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Loveland, K. A. (1991). Social affordances and interaction II: Autism and the affordances of the human environment. Ecological Psychology, 5 (2), 99–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, L., & Trevarthen, C. (1985). Emotional regulation of interactions between two-month-olds and their mothers. In Field, T. M. & Fox, N. A. (Eds.), Social perception in infants (pp. 177–197). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
O'Connor, N., & Hermelin, B. (1967). The selective visual attention of psychotic children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 8, 167–179.Google Scholar
Ornitz, E. M. (1989). Autism at the interface between sensory and information processing. In Dawson, G. (Ed.), Autism: Nature, diagnosis, and treatment (pp. 174–207). New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Ozonoff, S., Pennington, B., & Rogers, S. (1990). Are there specific emotion perception deficits in young autistic children? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 31, 343–361.Google Scholar
Prior, M., Dahlstrom, B., & Squires, T. L. (1990). Autistic children's knowledge of thinking and feeling states in other people. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 31, 587–601.Google Scholar
Snow, M. E., Hertzig, M. E., & Shapiro, T. (1987). Expression of emotion in young autistic children. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 26, 836–838.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker, A. S., (1982). Intermodal perception of expressive behaviors by human infants. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 33, 514–535.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker-Andrews, A. S. (1986). Intermodal perception of expressive behaviors: Relation of eye and voice? Developmental Psychology, 22, 373–377.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker-Andrews, A. S., Haviland, J. M., Huffman, L., & Toci, L. (1994). Brief Report: Preferential looking in intermodal perception by children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24, 99–107.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weeks, S. J., & Hobson, R. P. (1987). The salience of facial expression for autistic children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 28, 137–151.Google Scholar