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Is There a Limit to the Superiority of Individuals with ASD in Visual Search?

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Abstract

Superiority in visual search for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a well-reported finding. We administered two visual search tasks to individuals with ASD and matched controls. One showed no difference between the groups, and one did show the expected superior performance for individuals with ASD. These results offer an explanation, formulated in terms of load theory. We suggest that there is a limit to the superiority in visual search for individuals with ASD, related to the perceptual load of the stimuli. When perceptual load becomes so high that no additional task-(ir)relevant information can be processed, performance will be based on single stimulus identification, in which no differences between individuals with ASD and controls have been demonstrated.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Branka Milivojevic, Emmie van Schaffelaar, Manje Brinkhuis, Carlijn van den Boomen, and Esther Eijlers for their help with participant recruitment and data collection, and Siarhei Uzunbajakau for building the experimental setup. This work was supported by a Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) VICI Grant (45307004) to Chantal Kemner.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Author notes

  1. Tineke M. Snijders

    Present address: Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental Psychology, Helmholtz Institute, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Roy S. Hessels, Ignace T. C. Hooge, Tineke M. Snijders & Chantal Kemner

  2. Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Roy S. Hessels, Tineke M. Snijders & Chantal Kemner

  3. Heidelberglaan 2, 3584 CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Roy S. Hessels, Ignace T. C. Hooge & Chantal Kemner

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Centre, Heidelberglaan 100, 3584 CX, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Tineke M. Snijders & Chantal Kemner

  5. Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Tineke M. Snijders

  6. Kapittelweg 29, 6525 EN, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

    Tineke M. Snijders

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  1. Roy S. Hessels
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Correspondence to Roy S. Hessels.

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Hessels, R.S., Hooge, I.T.C., Snijders, T.M. et al. Is There a Limit to the Superiority of Individuals with ASD in Visual Search?. J Autism Dev Disord 44, 443–451 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-1886-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-1886-8

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