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Vernet M, Ducrot S, Chaix Y. A Systematic Review on Visual-Processing Deficits in Neurofibromatosis Type 1: What Possible Impact on Learning to Read? Dev Neuropsychol 2024; 49:111-137. [PMID: 38469855 DOI: 10.1080/87565641.2024.2326151] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/22/2023] [Accepted: 02/27/2024] [Indexed: 03/13/2024]
Abstract
This systematic review aimed to examine the possible implication of visual-perceptual, visuo-attentional and oculomotor processing in the reading deficits frequently experienced by children with Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), as previously shown in dyslexia. Using PRISMA methodological guidelines, we examined 49 studies; most of these reported visual-processing deficits in this population, raising the importance of directly studying the visuo-perceptual and visuo-attentional processes and eye-movement control involved in the learning-to-read process in NF1. The discussion provides a reflection for a better understanding of how visual-processing skills interact with reading deficits in NF1, as well as new avenues for their screening and care.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie Vernet
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPL, Aix-en-Provence, France
- Centre de jour enfants, Centre hospitalier de Digne-les-Bains, Digne-les-Bains, France
- TONIC, Toulouse NeuroImaging Center, Université de Toulouse, Inserm, UPS, Toulouse, France
| | | | - Yves Chaix
- TONIC, Toulouse NeuroImaging Center, Université de Toulouse, Inserm, UPS, Toulouse, France
- Neuropediatric Department, Toulouse-Purpan University Hospital, Toulouse, France
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2
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Switching between the Forest and the Trees: The Contribution of Global to Local Switching to Spatial Constructional Abilities in Typically Developing Children. Brain Sci 2020; 10:brainsci10120955. [PMID: 33317055 PMCID: PMC7764214 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci10120955] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/25/2020] [Revised: 11/29/2020] [Accepted: 12/07/2020] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Spatial analysis encompasses the ability to perceive the visual world by arranging the local elements (“the trees”) into a coherent global configuration (“the forest”). During childhood, this ability gradually switches from a local to a global precedence, which contributes to changes in children’s spatial construction abilities, such as drawing or building blocks. At present, it is not clear whether enhanced global or local processing or, alternatively, whether switching between these two levels best accounts for children’s spatial constructional abilities. Methods: We assessed typically developing children 7 to 8 years old on a global/local switching task and on two widely used spatial construction tasks (the Rey–Osterrieth Complex Figure and the Block Design test). Results: The ability to switch from global to local level, rather than a global or a local advantage, best accounted for children’s performance on both spatial construction tasks. Conclusions: The present findings contribute to elucidate the relationship between visual perception and spatial construction in children showing that the ease with which children switch perception from global to local processing is an important factor in their performance on tasks requiring complex drawing and block assembling.
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Wilson M, Henderson H. Shyness and perceived monitoring by peers affect children's performance in a divided attention task. J Exp Child Psychol 2020; 198:104882. [PMID: 32585302 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.104882] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2019] [Revised: 04/22/2020] [Accepted: 04/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
To engage effectively in a dynamic social world, children must be prepared to process incoming information quickly and efficiently. For some, the perception that one may be evaluated by peers may directly affect how they attend to and engage with the world around them. The current study examined how children's performance on a hierarchical figures task varies under perceived social and nonsocial conditions as a function of temperamental shyness. A total of 78 8-year-olds completed a self-report measure of shyness and two blocks of a divided attention task in which they identified targets appearing at the global or local level of a hierarchical figure. Children completed one block under standard laboratory conditions (Baseline condition) and completed the other block under the impression that their performance was being recorded and would be shown to other children of the same age (Social Monitoring condition). Results showed that children were faster and more accurate when targets appeared at the global level and when targets remained at the same level across trials. Furthermore, as shyness increased, children responded slower in the Social Monitoring condition relative to the Baseline condition. Notably, these changes in response time were not reflected by commensurate increases in accuracy. Potential processes and motivations underlying these differences in performance, as well as implications for children in real-world situations, are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- McLennon Wilson
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada.
| | - Heather Henderson
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 3G1, Canada
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Guy J, Mottron L, Berthiaume C, Bertone A. A Developmental Perspective of Global and Local Visual Perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 2019; 49:2706-2720. [PMID: 27371139 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-016-2834-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate superior performances on visuo-spatial tasks emphasizing local information processing; however, findings from studies involving hierarchical stimuli are inconsistent. Wide age ranges and group means complicate their interpretability. Children and adolescents with and without ASD completed a Navon task wherein they identified global and local stimuli composed of either consistent or inconsistent letters. Trajectories of reaction time in global and local conditions were similar within and between groups when consistent and inconsistent stimuli were considered together, but the effect of local-to-global interference was significantly higher in participants with than without ASD. Age was not a significant predictor of local-to-global interference, suggesting that this effect emerges in childhood and persists throughout adolescence in ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacalyn Guy
- Perceptual Neuroscience Laboratory for Autism and Development, McGill University, 3724 McTavish Street, Montreal, QC, H3A 1Y2, Canada.
- Integrated Program in Neuroscience, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
| | - Laurent Mottron
- Centre d'excellence en Troubles envahissants du développement de l'Université de Montréal (CETEDUM), Hôpital Rivière-des-Prairies, Montreal, Canada
| | - Claude Berthiaume
- Centre d'excellence en Troubles envahissants du développement de l'Université de Montréal (CETEDUM), Hôpital Rivière-des-Prairies, Montreal, Canada
| | - Armando Bertone
- Perceptual Neuroscience Laboratory for Autism and Development, McGill University, 3724 McTavish Street, Montreal, QC, H3A 1Y2, Canada
- Centre d'excellence en Troubles envahissants du développement de l'Université de Montréal (CETEDUM), Hôpital Rivière-des-Prairies, Montreal, Canada
- School/Applied Child Psychology, Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
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5
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Taranu M, Wimmer MC, Ross J, Farkas D, van Ee R, Winkler I, Denham SL. Children's perception of visual and auditory ambiguity and its link to executive functions and creativity. J Exp Child Psychol 2019; 184:123-138. [PMID: 31029832 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.03.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/03/2018] [Revised: 03/25/2019] [Accepted: 03/26/2019] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
The phenomenon of perceptual bistability provides insights into aspects of perceptual processing not normally accessible to everyday experience. However, most experiments have been conducted in adults, and it is not clear to what extent key aspects of perceptual switching change through development. The current research examined the ability of 6-, 8-, and 10-year-old children (N = 66) to switch between competing percepts of ambiguous visual and auditory stimuli and links between switching rate, executive functions, and creativity. The numbers of switches participants reported in two visual tasks (ambiguous figure and ambiguous structure from motion) and two auditory tasks (verbal transformation and auditory streaming) were measured in three 60-s blocks. In addition, inhibitory control was measured with a Stroop task, set shifting was measured with a verbal fluency task, and creativity was measured with a divergent thinking task. The numbers of perceptual switches increased in all four tasks from 6 to 10 years of age but differed across tasks in that they were higher in the verbal transformation and ambigous structure-from-motion tasks than in the ambigous figure and auditory streaming tasks for all age groups. Although perceptual switching rates differed across tasks, there were predictive relationships between switching rates in some tasks. However, little evidence for the influence of central processes on perceptual switching was found. Overall, the results support the notion that perceptual switching is largely modality and task specific and that this property is already evident when perceptual switching emerges.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mihaela Taranu
- Cognition Institute and School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK
| | - Marina C Wimmer
- Cognition Institute and School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK.
| | - Josephine Ross
- Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Dundee, Nethergate, Dundee DD1 4HN, Scotland, UK
| | - Dávid Farkas
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre of Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1117 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Raymond van Ee
- Biophysics, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University, 6500 GL Nijmegen, The Netherlands; Department of Brain and Cognition, Leuven University, 3000 BE Leuven, Belgium; Department of Brain, Behavior and Cognition, Philips Research, High Tech Campus, 5656 AE Eindhoven, The Netherlands
| | - István Winkler
- Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, H-1111 Budapest, Hungary
| | - Susan L Denham
- Cognition Institute and School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK
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6
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Nilsson Jobs E, Falck-Ytter T, Bölte S. Local and Global Visual Processing in 3-Year-Olds With and Without Autism. J Autism Dev Disord 2018; 48:2249-2257. [PMID: 29411217 PMCID: PMC5948270 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-018-3470-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
Research on visual local and global perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is incomplete in young children. We investigated 35 three-year-old siblings of children with ASD, either diagnosed (n = 12) or not diagnosed (n = 23) with ASD as well as 14 controls with typical development and with no family history of ASD. Data from the local tasks Children's Embedded Figures Test, Hidden Pictures, Figure-Ground and the global tasks Closure and Fragmented Picture Test were collected. Enhanced performance on the local task Hidden Pictures differentiated children with ASD from the other groups. Implications of these results are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisabeth Nilsson Jobs
- Uppsala Child and Baby Lab, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, 751 42, Uppsala, Sweden.
- Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Women's & Children's Health, Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
- Center of Psychiatry Research, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden.
| | - Terje Falck-Ytter
- Uppsala Child and Baby Lab, Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, 751 42, Uppsala, Sweden
- Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Women's & Children's Health, Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
- Center of Psychiatry Research, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Sven Bölte
- Division of Neuropsychiatry, Department of Women's & Children's Health, Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (KIND), Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
- Center of Psychiatry Research, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden
- Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Stockholm County Council, Stockholm, Sweden
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7
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Pouretemad H, Mokhtari S. Is Detecting a Target in a Compound Geometric Shape Influenced by Stimulus Density? A Developmental Study. JAPANESE PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2018. [DOI: 10.1111/jpr.12193] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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8
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Foster NEV, Ouimet T, Tryfon A, Doyle-Thomas K, Anagnostou E, Hyde KL. Effects of Age and Attention on Auditory Global-Local Processing in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 2016; 46:1415-28. [PMID: 26724923 DOI: 10.1007/s10803-015-2684-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
Abstract
In vision, typically-developing (TD) individuals perceive "global" (whole) before "local" (detailed) features, whereas individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit a local bias. However, auditory global-local distinctions are less clear in ASD, particularly in terms of age and attention effects. To these aims, here ASD and TD children judged local and global pitch structure in nine-tone melodies. Both groups showed a similar global precedence effect, but ASD children were less sensitive to global interference than TD children at younger ages. There was no effect of attention task. These findings provide novel evidence of developmental differences in auditory perception and may help to refine sensory phenotypes in ASD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicholas E V Foster
- International Laboratory for Brain Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Pavillon 1420 Mont-Royal, Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montreal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada.
- Faculty of Medicine, McIntyre Medical Building, McGill University, 3655 Sir William Osler, Montreal, QC, H3G 1Y6, Canada.
| | - Tia Ouimet
- International Laboratory for Brain Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Pavillon 1420 Mont-Royal, Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montreal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada
- Faculty of Medicine, McIntyre Medical Building, McGill University, 3655 Sir William Osler, Montreal, QC, H3G 1Y6, Canada
| | - Ana Tryfon
- International Laboratory for Brain Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Pavillon 1420 Mont-Royal, Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montreal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada
- Faculty of Medicine, McIntyre Medical Building, McGill University, 3655 Sir William Osler, Montreal, QC, H3G 1Y6, Canada
| | - Krissy Doyle-Thomas
- Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, University of Toronto, 150 Kilgour Road, Toronto, ON, M4G 1R8, Canada
| | - Evdokia Anagnostou
- Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, University of Toronto, 150 Kilgour Road, Toronto, ON, M4G 1R8, Canada
| | - Krista L Hyde
- International Laboratory for Brain Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Pavillon 1420 Mont-Royal, Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, C.P. 6128, Succ. Centre-Ville, Montreal, QC, H3C 3J7, Canada
- Faculty of Medicine, McIntyre Medical Building, McGill University, 3655 Sir William Osler, Montreal, QC, H3G 1Y6, Canada
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9
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Sex differences in the Kimchi-Palmer task revisited: Global reaction times, but not number of global choices differ between adult men and women. Physiol Behav 2016; 165:159-65. [PMID: 27445034 PMCID: PMC7115960 DOI: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2016.07.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/04/2016] [Revised: 07/14/2016] [Accepted: 07/16/2016] [Indexed: 12/03/2022]
Abstract
Research, directly assessing sex-dependent differences in global versus local processing is sparse, but predominantly suggesting that men show a stronger global processing bias than women. Utilizing the Kimchi-Palmer task however, sex differences in the number of global choices can only be found in children, but not in adults. In the current study 52 men and 46 women completed a computerized version of the Kimchi Palmer task, in order to investigate whether sex-differences in global-local processing in the Kimchi-Palmer task are reflected in choice reaction times rather than choices per se. While no sex differences were found in the number of global choices, we found that especially women are faster in making local choices than men, while men are faster in making global choices than women. We did not find support for the assumption that this sex difference was modulated by menstrual cycle phase of women, since the difference between reaction times to global and local choices was consistent across the menstrual cycle of women. Accordingly there was no relationship between progesterone and global-local processing in the Kimchi-Palmer task. However, like in studies utilizing the Navon task, testosterone was positively related to the number of global choices in both men and women. To our knowledge, this is the first study including reaction times as outcome measure in a Kimchi Palmer paradigm and also the first study demonstrating sex differences in the Kimchi Palmer task in adults.
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Sweeny TD, Wurnitsch N, Gopnik A, Whitney D. Ensemble perception of size in 4-5-year-old children. Dev Sci 2015; 18:556-68. [PMID: 25442844 PMCID: PMC5282927 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12239] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/16/2013] [Accepted: 07/14/2014] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Groups of objects are nearly everywhere we look. Adults can perceive and understand the 'gist' of multiple objects at once, engaging ensemble-coding mechanisms that summarize a group's overall appearance. Are these group-perception mechanisms in place early in childhood? Here, we provide the first evidence that 4-5-year-old children use ensemble coding to perceive the average size of a group of objects. Children viewed a pair of trees, with each containing a group of differently sized oranges. We found that, in order to determine which tree had the larger oranges overall, children integrated the sizes of multiple oranges into ensemble representations. This pooling occurred rapidly, and it occurred despite conflicting information from numerosity, continuous extent, density, and contrast. An ideal observer analysis showed that although children's integration mechanisms are sensitive, they are not yet as efficient as adults'. Overall, our results provide a new insight into the way children see and understand the environment, and they illustrate the fundamental nature of ensemble coding in visual perception.
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Affiliation(s)
| | | | - Alison Gopnik
- Department of Psychology, University of California – Berkeley
| | - David Whitney
- Department of Psychology, University of California – Berkeley
- Vision Science Group, University of California – Berkeley
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11
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Peterson E, Peterson RL. The Development of Global and Local Processing: A Comparison of Children to Adults. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2014. [DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2012.753603] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
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12
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Remington A, Cartwright-Finch U, Lavie N. I can see clearly now: the effects of age and perceptual load on inattentional blindness. Front Hum Neurosci 2014; 8:229. [PMID: 24795596 PMCID: PMC4005968 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2014] [Accepted: 03/31/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Attention and awareness are known to be linked (e.g., see Lavie et al., 2014, for a review). However the extent to which this link changes over development is not fully understood. Most research concerning the development of attention has investigated the effects of attention on distraction, visual search and spatial orienting, typically using reaction time measures which cannot directly support conclusions about conscious awareness. Here we used Lavie's Load Theory of Attention and Cognitive Control to examine the development of attention effects on awareness. According to Load Theory, awareness levels are determined by the availability of attentional capacity. We hypothesized that attentional capacity develops with age, and consequently that awareness rates should increase with development due to the enhanced capacity. Thus we predicted that greater rates of inattentional blindness (IB) would be found at a younger age, and that lower levels of load will be sufficient to exhaust capacity and cause IB in children but not adults. We tested this hypothesis using an IB paradigm with adults and children aged 7-8, 9-10, 11-12 and 13 years old. Participants performed a line-length judgment task (indicating which arm of a cross is longer) and on the last trial were asked to report whether they noticed an unexpected task-irrelevant stimulus (a small square) in the display. Perceptual load was varied by changing the line-length difference (with a smaller difference in the conditions of higher load). The results supported our hypothesis: levels of awareness increased with age, and a moderate increase in the perceptual load of the task led to greater IB for children but not adults. These results extended across both peripheral and central presentations of the task stimuli. Overall, these findings establish the development of capacity for awareness and demonstrate the critical role of the perceptual load in the attended task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Remington
- Department of Psychology and Human Development, Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE), Institute of Education, University of LondonLondon, UK
| | | | - Nilli Lavie
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College LondonLondon, UK
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13
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Huizinga M, Burack JA, Van der Molen MW. Age-Related Change in Shifting Attention Between Global and Local Levels of Hierarchical Stimuli. JOURNAL OF COGNITION AND DEVELOPMENT 2010. [DOI: 10.1080/15248371003700031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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14
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Grinter EJ, Maybery MT, Badcock DR. Vision in developmental disorders: is there a dorsal stream deficit? Brain Res Bull 2010; 82:147-60. [PMID: 20211706 DOI: 10.1016/j.brainresbull.2010.02.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 84] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2009] [Revised: 01/09/2010] [Accepted: 02/28/2010] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
The main aim of this review is to evaluate the proposal that several developmental disorders affecting vision share an impairment of the dorsal visual stream. First, the current definitions and common measurement approaches used to assess differences in both local and global functioning within the visual system are considered. Next, studies assessing local and global processing in the dorsal and ventral visual pathways are reviewed for five developmental conditions for which early to mid level visual abilities have been assessed: developmental dyslexia, autism spectrum disorders, developmental dyspraxia, Williams syndrome and Fragile X syndrome. The reviewed evidence is broadly consistent with the idea that the dorsal visual stream is affected in developmental disorders. However, the potential for a unique profile of visual abilities that distinguish some of the conditions is posited, given that for some of these disorders ventral stream deficits have also been found. We conclude with ideas regarding future directions for the study of visual perception in children with developmental disorders using psychophysical measures.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emma J Grinter
- School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Perth, Western Australia, 6008, Australia.
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15
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Scherf KS, Luna B, Kimchi R, Minshew N, Behrmann M. Missing the big picture: impaired development of global shape processing in autism. Autism Res 2009; 1:114-29. [PMID: 19360658 DOI: 10.1002/aur.17] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
Individuals with autism exhibit hypersensitivity to local elements of the input, which may interfere with the ability to group visual elements perceptually. We investigated the development of perceptual grouping abilities in high-functioning individuals with autism (HFA) across a wide age range (8-30 years) using a classic compound letter global/local (GL) task and a more fine-grained microgenetic prime paradigm (MPP), including both few- and many-element hierarchical displays. In the GL task, contrary to the typically developing (TD) controls, HFA participants did not develop an increasing sensitivity to the global information with age. In the MPP, like the TD controls, individuals with autism at all three age groups evinced a bias to individuate the few-element displays. However, contrary to the TD controls, the HFA group failed to show age-related improvements in the ability to encode the global shape of the many-element displays. In fact, across the age range, the HFA group was consistently faster than the TD controls at perceiving the local elements in these displays. These results indicate that in autism the full process of garnering shape information from perceptual grouping, which is essential for the ability to do fast and efficient object recognition and identification, never matures, and this is especially evident in adolescence when this ability begins to improve in TD individuals. The atypical development of these perceptual organizational abilities may disrupt processing of visually presented objects, which may, in turn, fundamentally impede the development of major aspects of the social and emotional behaviors in individuals with autism.
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Affiliation(s)
- K Suzanne Scherf
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.
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16
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Abstract
The developmental trajectory of perceptual organization in humans is unclear. This study investigated perceptual grouping abilities across a wide age range (8-30 years) using a classic compound letter global/local (GL) task and a more fine-grained microgenetic prime paradigm (MPP) with both few- and many-element hierarchical displays. In the GL task, contrary to adults, both children and adolescents exhibited a classic local bias. In the MPP, all 3 age groups evinced a bias to individuate the few-element displays; however, the ability to encode the global shape of the many-element displays at the short prime durations increased with age. These results indicate that the full process of garnering shape information from perceptual grouping, which is essential for the ability to do fast and efficient object recognition and identification, develops late into adolescence.
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Affiliation(s)
- K Suzanne Scherf
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
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17
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de Wit TCJ, Vrins S, Dejonckheere PJN, van Lier R. Form Perception of Partly Occluded Shapes in 4-Month-Old Infants. INFANCY 2008. [DOI: 10.1080/15250000802458864] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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18
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Farran EK, Cole VL. Perceptual grouping and distance estimates in typical and atypical development: comparing performance across perception, drawing and construction tasks. Brain Cogn 2008; 68:157-65. [PMID: 18508173 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2008.04.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/10/2007] [Revised: 04/01/2008] [Accepted: 04/08/2008] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Perceptual grouping is a pre-attentive process which serves to group local elements into global wholes, based on shared properties. One effect of perceptual grouping is to distort the ability to estimate the distance between two elements. In this study, biases in distance estimates, caused by four types of perceptual grouping, were measured across three tasks, a perception, a drawing and a construction task in both typical development (TD: Experiment 1) and in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS: Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, perceptual grouping distorted distance estimates across all three tasks. Interestingly, the effect of grouping by luminance was in the opposite direction to the effects of the remaining grouping types. We relate this to differences in the ability to inhibit perceptual grouping effects on distance estimates. Additive distorting influences were also observed in the drawing and the construction task, which are explained in terms of the points of reference employed in each task. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the above distortion effects are also observed in WS. Given the known deficit in the ability to use perceptual grouping in WS, this suggests a dissociation between the pre-attentive influence of and the attentive deployment of perceptual grouping in WS. The typical distortion in relation to drawing and construction points towards the presence of some typical location coding strategies in WS. The performance of the WS group differed from the TD participants on two counts. First, the pattern of overall distance estimates (averaged across interior and exterior distances) across the four perceptual grouping types, differed between groups. Second, the distorting influence of perceptual grouping was strongest for grouping by shape similarity in WS, which contrasts to a strength in grouping by proximity observed in the TD participants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily K Farran
- School of Psychology and Clinical Language Science, University of Reading, Earley Gate, Reading RG6 6AL, UK.
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Happé FGE, Booth RDL. The Power of the Positive: Revisiting Weak Coherence in Autism Spectrum Disorders. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2008; 61:50-63. [DOI: 10.1080/17470210701508731] [Citation(s) in RCA: 149] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
This paper reexamines Frith's original concept of weak coherence, its historical origins, recent reformulations, and alternative accounts. We suggest that the key notion of reduced global integration of information, which Frith proposed to underlie the assets in local processing, has been neglected in recent accounts of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In fact, most paradigms used to test weak coherence conflate global and local processing, often placing them in direct trade-off, so that it is not possible to tell whether patterns of performance in ASD reflect reduced global processing, increased local processing, or both. We review the literature from typical development and ASD that may be pertinent to this distinction and examine some data from our own studies. Only once tasks are devised that measure separately the effects of reduced global processing and increased local processing will it be possible to test the on-line and developmental relations between these two aspects of “weak coherence”. Some preliminary ideas about these relationships are discussed, and suggestions are made for why disentangling two possibly independent dimensions of weak coherence may be timely and productive.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francesca G. E. Happé
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
| | - Rhonda D. L. Booth
- Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK
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Integrating selective attention into developmental pedestrian safety research. CANADIAN PSYCHOLOGY-PSYCHOLOGIE CANADIENNE 2006. [DOI: 10.1037/cp2006010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 47] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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