Seeing the Forest and the Trees: Default Local Processing in Individuals with High Autistic Traits Does Not Come at the Expense of Global Attention.
Atypical sensory perception is one of the most ubiquitous symptoms of autism, including a tendency towards a local-processing bias. We investigated whether local-processing biases were associated with global-processing impairments on a global/local attentional-scope paradigm in conjunction with a composite-face task. Behavioural results were related to individuals' levels of autistic traits, specifically the Attention to Detail subscale of the Autism Quotient, and the Sensory Profile Questionnaire. Individuals showing high rates of Attention to Detail were more susceptible to global attentional-scope manipulations, suggesting that local-processing biases associated with Attention to Detail do not come at the cost of a global-processing deficit, but reflect a difference in default global versus local bias. This relationship operated at the attentional/perceptual level, but not response criterion.
['Stevenson|Ryan A|RA|', 'Sun|Sol Z|SZ|', 'Hazlett|Naomi|N|', 'Cant|Jonathan S|JS|', 'Barense|Morgan D|MD|', 'Ferber|Susanne|S|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D001288:Attention D001321:Autistic Disorder D000066499:Facial Recognition D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D010641:Phenotype D013647:Task Performance and Analysis D055815:Young Adult
Local processing Attention Autism spectrum disorder Composite-face effect Face recognition Global processing Sensory processing Vision