Abstract
Although temporal processing has received little attention in the autism literature, there are a number of reasons to suspect that people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have particular difficulties judging the passage of time. The present study tested a group of 20 high-functioning adults with ASD and 20 matched comparison participants on a temporal reproduction task. The ASD group made reproductions that were significantly further from the base durations than did the comparison group. They were also more variable in their responses. Furthermore the ASD group showed particular difficulties as the base durations increased, tending to underestimate to a much greater degree than the comparison group. These findings support earlier evidence that temporal processing is impaired in ASD.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Sebastian Gaigg for his comments and help with the data collection. This work was supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council to the second and third authors.
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Martin, J.S., Poirier, M. & Bowler, D.M. Brief Report: Impaired Temporal Reproduction Performance in Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 40, 640–646 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0904-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0904-3