Brief Report: Faces Cause Less Distraction in Autism

Riby, Deborah, Brown, Philippa, Jones, Nicola and Hanley, Mary (2012) Brief Report: Faces Cause Less Distraction in Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 42 (4). pp. 634-639. ISSN 0162-3257

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Abstract

Individuals with autism have difficulties interpreting face cues that contribute to deficits of social communication. When faces need to be processed for meaning they fail to capture and hold the attention of individuals with autism. In the current study we illustrate that faces fail to capture attention in a typical manner even when they are non-functional to task completion. In a visual search task with a present butterfly target an irrelevant face distracter significantly slows performance of typical individuals. However, participants with autism (n = 28; mean 10 years 4 months) of comparable non-verbal ability are not distracted by the faces. Interestingly, there is a significant relationship between level of functioning on the autism spectrum and degree of face capture or distraction.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Face perception, social attention, autism
Subjects:	C800 Psychology
Department:	Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Psychology
Depositing User:	Ellen Cole
Date Deposited:	11 Dec 2012 16:15
Last Modified:	12 Oct 2019 16:29
URI:	http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/10681

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