Global/local processing in autism: Not a disability, but a disinclination

Kami Koldewyn; Yuhong V. Jiang; Sarah Weigelt; Nancy Kanwisher

doi:10.1007/s10803-013-1777-z

Global/local processing in autism: Not a disability, but a disinclination

Kami Koldewyn, Yuhong V. Jiang, Sarah Weigelt, Nancy Kanwisher

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129 Scopus citations

Abstract

It is widely suggested that ASD is characterized by atypical local/global processing, but the published findings are contradictory. In an effort to resolve this question, we tested a large group of children on both a free-choice task and an instructed task using hierarchical local-global stimuli. We find that although children with autism showed a reduced preference to report global properties of a stimulus when given a choice, their ability to process global properties when instructed to do so is unimpaired. These findings support prior claims that people with ASD show a disinclination, not a disability, in global processing, and highlight the broader question of whether other characteristics of autism may also reflect disinclinations rather than disabilities.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	2329-2340
Number of pages	12
Journal	Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Volume	43
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-1777-z
State	Published - Oct 2013

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Acknowledgments The authors would especially like to thank all the participants and their families for their time and contribution to our research. We are grateful to all of the families at the participating SFARI Simplex Collection (SSC) sites, as well as the principal investigators (A. Beaudet, R. Bernier, J. Constantino, E. Cook, E. Fombonne, D. Geschwind, E. Hanson, D. Grice, A. Klin, R. Kochel, D. Ledbetter, C. Lord, C. Martin, D. Martin, R. Maxim, J. Miles, O. Ousley, K. Pelphrey, B. Peterson, J. Piggot, C. Saulnier, M. State, W. Stone, J. Sutcliffe, C. Walsh, Z. Warren, E. Wijsman). We are also grateful to all of the families participating in the Autism Consortium collection, as well as the principal investigators. This study was supported by funds from the Ellison Medical Foundation and the Simons Foundation.

Keywords

Autism spectrum disorder
Cognitive development
Global attention
Global/local processing

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abstract = "It is widely suggested that ASD is characterized by atypical local/global processing, but the published findings are contradictory. In an effort to resolve this question, we tested a large group of children on both a free-choice task and an instructed task using hierarchical local-global stimuli. We find that although children with autism showed a reduced preference to report global properties of a stimulus when given a choice, their ability to process global properties when instructed to do so is unimpaired. These findings support prior claims that people with ASD show a disinclination, not a disability, in global processing, and highlight the broader question of whether other characteristics of autism may also reflect disinclinations rather than disabilities.",

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Global/local processing in autism: Not a disability, but a disinclination

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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