Spatial Cognition in Autism Spectrum Disorders: Superior, Impaired, or Just Intact?

Article
First Online:

The profile of spatial ability is of interest across autism spectrum disorders (ASD) because of reported spatial strengths in ASD and due to the recent association of Asperger’s syndrome with Nonverbal Learning Disability. Spatial functions were examined in relation to two cognitive theories in autism: the central coherence and executive function (EF) theories. Performance on spatial tasks, EFs, and global/local processing was compared in children with ASD and controls. While the ASD group had faster reaction times on the Embedded Figures task, spatial performance was intact, but not superior, on other tasks. There was no evidence for impairments in EF or in processing global/local information, therefore contradicting these two theories. The implications of these results for these two theories are discussed.

Key Words

Autism Asperger’s syndrome spatial cognition executive function central coherence 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access

Notes

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a National Research Service Award (NRSA) #1 F31 MH12704 awarded to the first author. We a very grateful to the families that participated in this study. In addition, we would like to thank Elizabeth Griffith and Sally Rogers and her staff for help with recruitment. Finally, we thank the members of the DS team at DU for their support and help with data collection.

References

  1. Baddeley A. D., (1986). Working memory. Oxford: Claredon PressGoogle Scholar
  2. Banks W. P., Prinzmetal W., (1976). Configural effects in visual information processing Perception & Psychophysics 19: 361–367Google Scholar
  3. Bennetto L., Pennington B. F., Rogers S. J., (1996). Intact and impaired memory functions in autism Child Development 67(4): 1816–1835PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. Brian J. A., Bryson S. E., (1996). Disembedding performance and recognition memory in autism/PDD Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 37: 865–872PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  5. Bruininks, R. K., Woodcock, R. W., Weatherman, R. F., Hill, B. K. (1996). Scales of independent behavior—revised (SIB-R). The Riverside Publishing CompanyGoogle Scholar
  6. Caron M. J. Mottron L., Rainville C., Chouinard S., (2004). Do high functioning persons with autism present superior spatial abilities?Neuropsychologia 42(4): 467–481PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  7. Carroll J. B., (1993). Human cognitive abilities: A survey of factor-analytic studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
  8. CeNeS (1999). The temporal stability (‘test-retest reliability’) of main outcome measures from CANTAB tests [On-line]. Available: http://www.cenes.com/cognition/reliability.htmlGoogle Scholar
  9. Cohen J., (1992). A power primer Psychological Bulletin 112(1): 155–159CrossRefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  10. Dunn L. M., Dunn L. M., (1997). Peabody picture vocabulary test3rd Edn. Circle Pines, MN: AGS PublishingGoogle Scholar
  11. Freeman B. J., Ritvo E. R, Yokota A., Childs J. et al. (1988). WISC–R and Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale scores in autistic children Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 27(4): 428–429CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Frith U., (1989). Autism: Explaining the enigma. Oxford: Basil BlackwellGoogle Scholar
  13. Frith U., Happe F., (1994). Autism: Beyond “theory of mind”Cognition 50(1–3): 115–132PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Grandin T., (1995). How people with autism think. In: Schopler E., Mesibov G. B., (Eds.), Learning and cognition in autism. New York, NY, USA: Plenum PressGoogle Scholar
  15. Griffith E. M., Pennington B. F., Wehner E. A., Rogers S. J., (1999). Executive functions in young children with Autism Child Development 70(4): 817–832PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  16. Griffith, E. M. (2002). The use of feedback in autism, Doctoral DissertationGoogle Scholar
  17. Happe F. G. E., (1996). Studying weak central coherence at low levels: Children with autism do not succumb to visual illusions. A research noteJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 37: 873–877PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. Happe F. G., (1999). Autism: Cognitive deficit or cognitive style?Trends in Cognitive Sciences 3: 216–222PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  19. Hughes C., Russell J., Robbins T. W., (1994). Evidence for executive dysfunction in autism Neuropsychologia 34(3): 477–492CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  20. Huttenlocher J., Hedges L. V., Duncan S., (1991). Categories and particulars: Prototype effects in estimating spatial location Psychological Review 98(3): 352–376PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  21. Jarrold C., Butler D. W., Cottington E. M., Jimenez F., (2000). Linking theory of mind and central coherence bias in autism and in the general population Developmental Psychology 36(1): 126–138PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  22. Jolliffe T., Baron-Cohen S., (1997). Are people with autism faster than normal on the embedded figures test? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 38: 527–534PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  23. Jolliffe T., Baron-Cohen S., (2001). A test of central coherence theory: Can adults with high-functioning autism or Asperger syndrome integrate objects in context? Visual Cognition 8(1): 67–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  24. Koczat D. L., Rogers S. J., Pennington B. F., Ross R. G., (2002). Eye movement abnormality suggestive of a spatial working memory deficit is present in parents of autistic probands Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders 32(6): 513–518CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  25. Klin A., Volkmar F., Sparrow S. S, Cicchetti D., (1995). Validity and neuropsychological characterization of Asperger syndrome: Convergence with nonverbal learning disabilities syndrome Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines 36: 1127–1140CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  26. Lord C., Rutter M., Le Couteur A., (1994). Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised: A revised version of a diagnostic interview for caregivers of individuals with possible pervasive developmental disorders Journal of Autism and Developmental disorders 24: 659–686PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  27. Lowe C., Rabbitt P., (1998). Test/re-test reliability of the CANTAB and ISPOCD neuropsychological batteries: Theoretical and practical issuesNeuropsychologia 36(9): 915–923PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  28. Luciana M., Nelson C. A., (1998). The functional emergence of prefrontally-guided working memory systems in four to eight year old childrenNeuropsychologia 36(3): 273–293PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  29. Macintosh K. E., Dissanayake C., (2004). Annotation: The similarities and differences between autistic disorder and Asperger’s disorder: A review of the empirical evidence Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry 45(3): 421–434CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  30. McEvoy R., Rogers S. J., Pennington B. F., (1993). Executive function and social communication deficits in young autistic childrenJournal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines 34(4): 563–578CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  31. Miller J. N., Ozonoff S., (2000). The external validity of Asperger’s disorder: Lack of evidence from the domain of neuropsychology Journal of Abnormal Psychology 109: 227–238PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  32. Minshew N. J., Luna B., Sweeney J. A., (1999). Oculomotor evidence for neocortical systems but not cerebellar dysfunction in autism Neurology 52(5): 917–922PubMedGoogle Scholar
  33. Minshew N. J., Goldstein G., Muenz L. R., Payton J. B., (1992). Neuropsychological functioning of nonmentally retarded autistic individualsJournal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology 14: 749–761PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  34. Morgan B., Maybery M., Durkin K., (2003). Weak central coherence, poor joint attention, and low verbal ability: Independent deficits in early autism Developmental Psychology 39(4): 646–656PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  35. Mottron L., Burack J. A., Iarocci G., Belleville S., Enns J. T., (2003). Locally oriented perception with intact global processing among adolescents with high-functioning autism: Evidence from multiple paradigmsJournal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines 44(6): 904–913CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  36. Mottron L., Peretz I., Menard E., (2000). Local and global processing of music in high-functioning persons with autism: Beyond central coherence?Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines 41(8): 1057–1065CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  37. Mottron L., Belleville S., (1993). A study of perceptual analysis in a high-level autistic subject with exceptional graphic abilities Brain and Cognition 23(2): 279–309PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  38. Mottron L., Belleville S., (1995). Perspective production in a savant autistic draughtsman Psychological Medicine 25(3): 639–648PubMedGoogle Scholar
  39. Mottron L., Belleville S., Menard E., (1999). Local bias in Autistic subjects as evidenced by graphic tasks: Perceptual hierarchization or working memory deficit? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines 40(5): 743–755CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  40. Mottron L., Burack J. A., Stauder J. E. A., Robaey P., (1999). Perceptual processing among high-functioning persons with autism Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines 40(2): 203–211CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  41. Oldfield R. C., (1971). The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh inventory Neuropsychologia 9(1): 97–113PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  42. Owen A. M., Doyon J., Petrides M., Evans A. C., (1996). Planning and spatial working memory: A positron emission tomography study in humans European Journal of Neuroscience 8: 353–364PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  43. Ozonoff S., Strayer D. L., (2001). Further evidence of intact working memory in autismJournal of Autism & Developmental Disorders 31(3): 257–263CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  44. Ozonoff S., Strayer D. L., McMahon W. M., Filloux F., (1994). Executive function abilities in autism and Tourette syndrome: an information processing approach Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines 35: 1015–1032CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  45. Ozonoff S., South M., Miller J. N., (2000). DSM-IV-defined Asperger syndrome: Cognitive, behavioral and early history differentiation from high-functioning autismAutism. Special Issue: Asperger syndrome 4(1): 29–46Google Scholar
  46. Ozonoff S., Griffith E. M., (2000). Neuropsychological function and the external validity of Asperger syndrome. In Klin A., Volkmar F. R., et al. (Eds.), Asperger syndrome. New York, NY, US: Guilford Press p. 72–96Google Scholar
  47. Ozonoff S., (1995). Reliability and validity of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test in studies of autism Neuropsychology 9(4): 491–500CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  48. Ozonoff S., Pennington B. F., Rogers S. J., (1991). Executive function deficits in high-functioning autistic individuals: Relationship to theory of mindJournal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines 32(7): 1081–1105CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  49. Ozonoff S., McEvoy R. E., (1994) A longitudinal study of executive function and theory of mind development in autismDevelopment and Psychopathology 6: 415–431CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  50. Pani J. R., Mervis C. B., Klein B. P., (1999). Global spatial organization by individuals with Williams syndromePsychological Science 10: 453–458CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  51. Pascualvaca D., Fantie B., Papageorgiou M., Mirsky A., (1998). Attention capacities in children with autism: Is there a general deficit in shifting focus? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 28: 467–478PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  52. Pennington B. F., (2002). The development of psychopathology: Nature and nurture. New York, NY, US: Guilford PressGoogle Scholar
  53. Pennington B. F., Ozonoff S., (1996). Executive functions and developmental psychopathology Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines 37: 51–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  54. Pennington, B. F., Bennetto, L., McAleer, O., Roberts, R. J. (1996). Executive functions and working memory: Theoretical and measurement issues. In: G. R. Lyon, & N. A. Krasnegor (Eds.). Attention, memory, and executive function (pp. 327-348). Baltimore, MD, US: Paul H. Brookes Publishing CoGoogle Scholar
  55. Petrides M., Milner B, (1982). Deficits on subject-ordered tasks after frontal-and temporal-lobe lesions in manNeuropsychologia 20(3): 249–262PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  56. Plaisted K. C, Swettenham J., Rees L., (1999). Children with autism show local precedence in a divided attention task and global precedence in a selective attention taskJournal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines 40(5): 733–742CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  57. Prior M., Hoffmann W., (1990). Brief report: Neuropsychological testing of autistic children through an exploration with frontal lobe tests Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders 20(4): 581–590CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  58. Rinehart N. J., Bradshaw J. L., Moss S. A., Brereton A. V., Tonge B. J., (2000). Atypical interference of local detail on global processing in high-functioning autism and Asperger’s disorder Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines 41(6): 769–778CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  59. Ring H. A., Baron-Cohen S., Wheelright S., Williams S. C. R., Brammer M., Andrew C., Bullmore E. T., (1999). Cerebral correlates of preserved cognitive skills in autism: A functional MRI study of embedded figures task performanceBrain 122: 1305–1315PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  60. Rumsey J. M., (1985). Conceptual problem-solving in highly verbal, nonretarded autistic men Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders 15(1): 23–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  61. Rumsey J. M., Hamburger S. D., (1988). Neuropsychological findings in high-functioning men with infantile autism, residual state Journal of Clinical & Experimental Neuropsychology 10(2): 201–221CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  62. Russell J. (Eds.) (1997). Autism as an executive disorder. London: Oxford University PressGoogle Scholar
  63. Russell J., Jarrold C., Henry L., (1996). Working memory in children with autism and with moderate learning difficulties Journal of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines 37(6): 673–686CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  64. Sattler, J. M. (2001). Assessment of children: Cognitive applications (4th ed.). Jerome M. Sattler, Publisher, IncGoogle Scholar
  65. Schneider S. G., Asarnow R. F., (1987). A comparison of cognitive/neuropsychological impairments of nonretarded autistic and schizophrenic childrenJournal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15(1): 29–45PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  66. Selfe L., (1983). Normal and anomalous representational drawing in children. London: Academic PressGoogle Scholar
  67. Shah A., (1988). Visuo-spatial islets of abilities and intellectual functioning in autism. University of London, LondonGoogle Scholar
  68. Shah A., Frith U., (1983). An islet of ability in autistic children: A research noteJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 24: 612–620CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  69. Shah A., Frith U., (1993). Who do autistic individuals show superior performance on the Block Design task?Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 34: 1351–1364PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  70. Shah P., Miyake A., (1996). The separability of working memory resources for spatial thinking and language processing: An individual differences approachThe Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 125(1): 4–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  71. Stone W. L, Ousley O. Y., Hepburn S. L., Hogan K. L., Brown C. S., (1999). Patterns of adaptive behavior in very young children with autism American Journal on Mental Retardation 104(2): 187–199PubMedCrossRefGoogle Scholar
  72. Sigman M., (1987). Cognitive abilities in autism. In Cohen D. J., Donnellan A. M., Paul R., (Eds.), Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders. New York, NY, USA: John Wiley and SonsGoogle Scholar
  73. Thomas K., Hsu M., Laurance H. E, Nadel L., Jacobs W., (2001). Place learning in virtual space III: Investigation of spatial navigation training procedures and their application to fMRI and clinical neuropsychology Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers 33(1): 21–37Google Scholar
  74. Witkin H. A., Oltman P. K., Raskin E., Karp S. A., (1971). A manual for the embedded figures tests. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists PressGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer 2005

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.University of DenverDenverUSA
  2. 2.Department of EducationUniversity of CanterburyChristchurchNew Zealand

Personalised recommendations