Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Face and Object Discrimination in Autism, and Relationship to IQ and Age

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The current study tested fine discrimination of upright and inverted faces and objects in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as compared to age- and IQ-matched controls. Discrimination sensitivity was tested using morphed faces and morphed objects, and all stimuli were equated in low-level visual characteristics (luminance, contrast, spatial frequency make-up). Participants with ASD exhibited slight, non-significant impairments in discrimination sensitivity for faces, yet significantly enhanced discrimination sensitivity for objects. The ASD group also showed a protracted development of face and object inversion effects. Finally, for ASD participants, face sensitivity improved with increasing IQ while object sensitivity improved with age. By contrast, for controls, face sensitivity improved with age, but neither face nor object sensitivity was influenced by IQ. These findings suggest that individuals with ASD follow a qualitatively different path in the development of face and object processing abilities.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Unfortunately, due to a glitch in our program, our faces and cars were not equated in size; however the differences in size were not very large. And, previous research has shown that the neural mechanisms underlying face and object processing are largely invariant to changes in size (Zhao and Chub 2001; Yamashita et al. 2005; Rolls et al. 1992; Grill-Spector et al. 1999).

  2. Note that template Face 1 is always on the left side and template Face 2 is always on the right side. The reason we did not counterbalance the location of Face 1/Face 2 across trials is because this paradigm had been part of a study comparing typically developing children (4–5 year olds) with adolescents (Pallett and Dobkins 2013), where we wanted to keep things as simple as possible for the children. Because we did not counterbalance, if a participant had a bias to respond “left” rather than “right” (or vice versa), this would result in them doing better at matching the test face with Face 1 (on the left side) than with Face 2 (on the right side) (or vice versa). This is not expected to be a problem, however, because we take the average of the thresholds for matching the test face to Face 1 and Face 2, so biases should average out (and likewise for cars).

  3. Data from the “easy trials” were not included in this analysis.

References

  • American Psychiatric Association. (2004). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th-TR ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

  • American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baranek, G. T. (1999). Autism during infancy: A retrospective video analysis of sensory-motor and social behaviors at 9–12 months of age. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 29(3), 213–224.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Haim, Y., Shulman, C., Lamy, D., & Reuveni, A. (2006). Attention to eyes and mouth in high-functioning children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(1), 131–137. doi:10.1007/s10803-005-0046-1.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Behrmann, M., Thomas, C., & Humphreys, K. (2006). Seeing it differently: Visual processing in autism. TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences, 10(6), 258–264. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2006.05.001.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bookheimer, S. Y., Wang, A. T., Scott, A., Sigman, M., & Dapretto, M. (2008). Frontal contributions to face processing differences in autism: Evidence from fMRI of inverted face processing. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 14(6), 922–932. doi:10.1017/S135561770808140X.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bosworth, R. G., Bartlett, M. S., & Dobkins, K. R. (2006). Image statistics of American Sign Language: Comparison with faces and natural scenes. Journal of the Optical Society of America A: Optics, Image Science, and Vision, 23(9), 2085–2096.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Boucher, J., & Lewis, V. (1992). Unfamiliar face recognition in relatively able autistic children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 33(5), 843–859.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brainard, D. H. (1997). The psychophysics toolbox. Spatial Vision, 10, 433–436.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Constantino, J. N., Przybeck, T., Friesen, D., & Todd, R. D. (2000). Reciprocal social behavior in children with and without pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 21(1), 2–11.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dalton, K. M., Nacewicz, B. M., Johnstone, T., Schaefer, H. S., Gernsbacher, M. A., Goldsmith, H. H., et al. (2005). Gaze fixation and the neural circuitry of face processing in autism. Nature Neuroscience, 8(4), 519–526. doi:10.1038/nn1421.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Damarla, S. R., Keller, T. A., Kana, R. K., Cherkassky, V. L., Williams, D. L., Minshew, N. J., et al. (2010). Cortical underconnectivity coupled with preserved visuospatial cognition in autism: Evidence from an fMRI study of an embedded figures task. Autism Research: Official Journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 3(5), 273–279. doi:10.1002/aur.153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deruelle, C., Rondan, C., Gepner, B., & Fagot, J. (2006). Processing of compound visual stimuli by children with autism and Asperger syndrome. International Journal of Psychology, 41(2), 97–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deruelle, C., Rondan, C., Gepner, B., & Tardif, C. (2004). Spatial frequency and face processing in children with autism and Asperger syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34(2), 199–210.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Deruelle, C., Rondan, C., Salle-Collemiche, X., Bastard-Rosset, D., & Da Fonseca, D. (2008). Attention to low- and high-spatial frequencies in categorizing facial identities, emotions and gender in children with autism. Brain and Cognition, 66(2), 115–123. doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2007.06.001.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Falck-Ytter, T. (2008). Face inversion effects in autism: A combined looking time and pupillometric study. Autism Research: Official Journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 1(5), 297–306. doi:10.1002/aur.45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Farah, M. J., Wilson, K. D., Drain, M., & Tanaka, J. N. (1998). What is “special” about face perception? Psychological Review, 105(3), 482–498.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Freire, A., Lee, K., & Symons, L. A. (2000). The face-inversion effect as a deficit in the encoding of configural information: Direct evidence. Perception, 29(2), 159–170.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gauthier, I., Klaiman, C., & Schultz, R. T. (2009). Face composite effects reveal abnormal face processing in Autism spectrum disorders. Vision Research, 49(4), 470–478. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2008.12.007.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gepner, B., De Gelder, B., & De Schonen, S. (1996). Face processing in autistics: Evidence for a generalised deficit? Child Neuropsychology: A Journal on Normal and Abnormal Development in Childhood and Adolescence, 2(2), 123–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Germine, L. T., Duchaine, B., & Nakayama, K. (2011). Where cognitive development and aging meet: Face learning ability peaks after age 30. Cognition, 118(2), 201–210. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2010.11.002.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goffaux, V., Peters, J., Haubrechts, J., Schiltz, C., Jansma, B., & Goebel, R. (2011a). From coarse to fine? Spatial and temporal dynamics of cortical face processing. Cerebral Cortex, 21(2), 467–476. doi:10.1093/cercor/bhq112.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goffaux, V., & Rossion, B. (2007). Face inversion disproportionately impairs the perception of vertical but not horizontal relations between features. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 33(4), 995–1001.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goffaux, V., van Zon, J., & Schiltz, C. (2011b). The horizontal tuning of face perception relies on the processing of intermediate and high spatial frequencies. Journal of Vision, 11(10). doi: 10.1167/11.10.1.

  • Golarai, G., Grill-Spector, K., & Reiss, A. L. (2006). Autism and the development of face processing. Clinical Neuroscience Research, 6(3), 145–160. doi:10.1016/j.cnr.2006.08.001.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grill-Spector, K., Kushnir, T., Edelman, S., Avidan, G., Itzchak, Y., & Malach, R. (1999). Differential processing of objects under various viewing conditions in the human lateral occipital complex. Neuron, 24, 187–203.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Grossman, R. B., & Tager-Flusberg, H. (2008). Reading faces for information about words and emotions in adolescents with autism. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 2(4), 681–695. doi:10.1016/j.rasd.2008.02.004.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Happé, F., & Frith, U. (2006). The weak coherence account: Detail-focused cognitive style in autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(1), 5–25. doi:10.1007/s10803-005-0039-0.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hauck, M., Fein, D., Maltby, N., Waterhouse, L., & Feinstein, C. (1998). Memory for faces in children with autism. Child Neuropsychology, 4(3), 187–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haxby, J. V., Hoffman, E. A., & Gobbini, M. I. (2000). The distributed human neural system for face perception. TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences, 4(6), 223–233.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hole, G. J., George, P. A., & Dunsmore, V. (1999). Evidence for holistic processing for faces viewed as photographic negatives. Perception, 28, 341–359.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hubl, D., Bolte, S., Feineis-Matthews, S., Lanfermann, H., Federspiel, A., Strik, W., et al. (2003). Functional imbalance of visual pathways indicates alternative face processing strategies in autism. Neurology, 61(9), 1232–1237.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jarrold, C., & Brock, J. (2004). To match or not to match? Methodological issues in autism-related research. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34(1), 81–86.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jolliffe, T., & Baron-Cohen, S. (1997). Are people with autism and Asperger syndrome faster than normal on the embedded figures test? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 38(5), 527–534.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joseph, R. M., Ehrman, K., McNally, R., & Keehn, B. (2008). Affective response to eye contact and face recognition ability in children with ASD. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 14(6), 947–955. doi:10.1017/S1355617708081344.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Joseph, R. M., & Tanaka, J. (2003). Holistic and part-based face recognition in children with autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 44(4), 529–542.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kanwisher, N., McDermott, J., & Chun, M. M. (1997). The fusiform face area: A module in human extrastriate cortex specialized for face perception. Journal of Neuroscience, 17(11), 4302–4311.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kanwisher, N., Tong, F., & Nakayama, K. (1998). The effect of inversion on the human fusiform face area. Cognition, 68, B1–B11.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lahaie, A., Mottron, L., Arguin, M., Berthiaume, C., Jemel, B., & Saumier, D. (2006). Face perception in high-functioning autistic adults: Evidence for superior processing of face parts, not for a configural face-processing deficit. Neuropsychology, 20(1), 30–41. doi:10.1037/0894-4105.20.1.30.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Langner, O., Dotsch, R., Bijlstra, G., Wigboldus, D. H. J., Hawk, S. T., & van Knippenberg, A. (2010). Presentation and validation of the Radboud Faces Database. Cognition and Emotion, 24(8), 1377–1388.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leonard, H. C., Annaz, D., Karmiloff-Smith, A., & Johnson, M. H. (2011). Developing spatial frequency biases for face recognition in autism and Williams syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 41(7), 968–973. doi:10.1007/s10803-010-1115-7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • López, B., Donnelly, N., Hadwin, J. A., & Leekam, S. R. (2004). Face processing in high-functioning adolescents with autism: Evidence for weak central coherence. Visual Cognition, 11(6), 673–688.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lord, C., Risi, S., Lambrecht, L., Cook, E. H, Jr, Leventhal, B. L., DiLavore, P. C., et al. (2000). The autism diagnostic observation schedule-generic: A standard measure of social and communication deficits associated with the spectrum of autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 30(3), 205–223.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Macchi Cassia, V., Picozzi, M., Kuefner, D., Bricolo, E., & Turati, C. (2009). Holistic processing for faces and cars in preschool-aged children and adults: Evidence from the composite effect. Developmental science, 12(2), 236–248. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00765.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Macchi Cassia, V., Turati, C., & Schwarzer, G. (2011). Sensitivity to spacing changes in faces and nonface objects in preschool-aged children and adults. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 109(4), 454–467. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2011.03.003.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Maestro, S., Muratori, F., Cavallaro, M. C., Pei, F., Stern, D., Golse, B., et al. (2002). Attentional skills during the first 6 months of age in autism spectrum disorder. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 41(10), 1239–1245. doi:10.1097/00004583-200210000-00014.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Maurer, D., Le Grand, R., & Mondloch, C. J. (2002). The many faces of configural processing. TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences, 6(6), 255–260.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McCleery, J. P., Akshoomoff, N., Dobkins, K. R., & Carver, L. J. (2009). Atypical faces vs. object processing and hemispheric asymmetries in 10-month-old infants at risk for autism. Biological Psychiatry, 66(10), 950–957.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McKone, E., & Boyer, B. L. (2006). Sensitivity of 4-year-olds to featural and second-order relational changes in face distinctiveness. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 94(2), 134–162.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McKone, E., Crookes, K., & Kanwisher, N. (2009). The cognitive and neural development of face recognition in humans. In M. S. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The cognitive neurosciences (4th ed., pp. 467–482). USA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKone, E., Kanwisher, N., & Duchaine, B. C. (2007). Can generic expertise explain special processing for faces? TRENDS in Cognitive Sciences, 11(1), 8–15. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2006.11.002.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McKone, E., & Yovel, G. (2009). Why does picture-plane inversion sometimes dissociate perception of features and spacing in faces, and sometimes not? Toward a new theory of holistic processing. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16(5), 778–797. doi:10.3758/PBR.16.5.778.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Morita, T., Kosaka, H., Saito, D. N., Ishitobi, M., Munesue, T., Itakura, S., et al. (2011). Emotional responses associated with self-face processing in individuals with autism spectrum disorders: An fMRI study. Social Neuroscience,. doi:10.1080/17470919.2011.598945.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • O’Hearn, K., Schroer, E., Minshew, N., & Luna, B. (2010). Lack of developmental improvement on face memory task during adolescence in autism. Neurophsychologia, 48, 3955–3960.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oldfield, R. C. (1971). The assessment and analysis of handedness: The Edinburgh inventory. Neuropsychologia, 9(1), 97–113.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ozonoff, S., Macari, S., Young, G. S., Goldring, S., Thompson, M., & Rogers, S. J. (2008). Atypical object exploration at 12 months of age is associated with autism in a prospective sample. Autism: The International Journal of Research and Practice, 12(5), 457–472. doi:10.1177/1362361308096402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pallett, P. M., & Dobkins, K. R. (2013). Development of face discrimination abilities, and relationship to magnocellular pathway development, between childhood and adulthood. Visual Neuroscience, First View Articles, 1–12. doi:10.1017/S0952523813000217.

  • Pallett, P. M., & MacLeod, D. I. (2011). Seeing faces as objects: No face inversion effect with geometrical discrimination. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 73(2), 504–520. doi:10.3758/s13414-010-0033-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pascalis, O., de Vivies, X. D., Anzures, G., Quinn, P. C., Slater, A. M., Tanaka, J. W., et al. (2011). Development of face processing. Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive Science, 2(6), 666–675. doi:10.1002/wcs.146.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pelli, D. G. (1997). The VideoToolbox software for visual psychophysics: Transforming numbers into movies. Spatial Vision, 10, 437–442.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pellicano, E., Rhodes, G., & Peters, M. (2006). Are preschoolers sensitive to configural information in faces? Developmental Science, 9(3), 270–277.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Picozzi, M., Cassia, V. M., Turati, C., & Vescovo, E. (2009). The effect of inversion on 3- to 5-year-olds’ recognition of face and nonface visual objects. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 102(4), 487–502. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2008.11.001.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pierce, K., Müller, R. A., Ambrose, J., Allen, G., & Courchesne, E. (2001). Face processing occurs outside the fusiform ‘face area’ in autism: Evidence from functional MRI. Brain: A Journal of Neurology, 124(Pt 10), 2059–2073.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pitcher, D., Charles, L., Devlin, J. T., Walsh, V., & Duchaine, B. (2009). Triple dissociation of faces, bodies, and objects in extrastriate cortex. Current Biology, 19(4), 319–324. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2009.01.007.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Riby, D. M., Riby, L. M., & Reay, J. L. (2009). Differential sensitivity to rotations of facial features in the Thatcher illusion. Psychological Reports, 105(3 Pt 1), 721–726.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Richler, J. J., Mack, M. L., Palmeri, T. J., & Gauthier, I. (2011). Inverted faces are (eventually) processed holistically. Vision Research, 51(3), 333–342. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2010.11.014.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • 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 and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 41(6), 769–778.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ring, H. A., Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Williams, S. C., Brammer, M., Andrew, C., et al. (1999). Cerebral correlates of preserved cognitive skills in autism: A functional MRI study of embedded figures task performance. Brain: A Journal of Neurology, 122(Pt 7), 1305–1315.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rolls, E. T., Cowey, A., & Bruce, V. (1992). Neurophysiological mechanisms underlying face processing within and beyond the temporal cortical visual areas [and discussion]. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 335, 11–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rondan, C., & Deruelle, C. (2007). Global and configural visual processing in adults with autism and Asperger syndrome. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 28(2), 197–206. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2006.02.007.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, F. E., Lincoln, A. J., Lai, Z., Ene, M., Searcy, Y. M., & Bellugi, U. (2007). Orientation and affective expression effects on face recognition in Williams syndrome and autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37(3), 513–522. doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0200-4.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rosset, D. B., Rondan, C., Da Fonseca, D., Santos, A., Assouline, B., & Deruelle, C. (2008). Typical emotion processing for cartoon but not for real faces in children with autistic spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38(5), 919–925. doi:10.1007/s10803-007-0465-2.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rossion, B. (2008). Picture-plane inversion leads to qualitative changes of face perception. Acta Psychologica, 128(2), 274–289. doi:10.1016/j.actpsy.2008.02.003.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, M. D., Clements, K. A., & Sekuler, A. B. (2007). Differences in discrimination of eye and mouth displacement in autism spectrum disorders. Vision Research, 47(15), 2099–2110. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2007.01.029.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rutter, M. (2003). Introduction: Autism—the challenges ahead. Novartis Foundation Symposium, 251, 1–9. discussion 109–111, 281–197.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sangrigoli, S., & de Schonen, S. (2004). Effect of visual experience on face processing: A developmental study of inversion and non-native effects. Developmental Science, 7(1), 74–87.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sasson, N. J. (2006). The development of face processing in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36(3), 381–394.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scherf, K. S., Behrmann, M., & Dahl, R. E. (2012). Facing changes and changing faces in adolescence: A new model for investigating adolescent-specific interactions between pubertal, brain and behavioral development. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 2(2), 199–219. doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2011.07.016.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scherf, K. S., Behrmann, M., Minshew, N., & Luna, B. (2008). Atypical development of face and greeble recognition in autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 49(8), 838–847. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.01903.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schultz, R. T. (2005). Developmental deficits in social perception in autism: The role of the amygdala and fusiform face area. International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience, 23(2–3), 125–141. doi:10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2004.12.012.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schultz, R. T., Gauthier, I., Klin, A., Fulbright, R. K., Anderson, A. W., Volkmar, F., et al. (2000). Abnormal ventral temporal cortical activity during face discrimination among individuals with autism and Asperger syndrome. Archives of General Psychiatry, 57(4), 331–340.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sekuler, A. B., Gaspar, C. M., Gold, J. M., & Bennett, P. J. (2004). Inversion leads to quantitative, not qualitative, changes in face processing. Current Biology, 14(5), 391–396. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2004.02.028.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shah, A., & Frith, U. (1983). An islet of ability in autistic children: A research note. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 24(4), 613–620.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swettenham, J., Baron-Cohen, S., Charman, T., Cox, A., Baird, G., Drew, A., et al. (1998). The frequency and distribution of spontaneous attention shifts between social and nonsocial stimuli in autistic, typically developing, and nonautistic developmentally delayed infants. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 39(5), 747–753.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tanaka, J. W., & Corneille, O. (2007). Typicality effects in face and object perception: Further evidence for the attractor field model. Perception & Psychophysics, 69(4), 619–627.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tanaka, J. W., & Farah, M. J. (1993). Parts and wholes in face recognition. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section A-Human Experimental Psychology, 46(2), 225–245.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, M. M., & Creelman, C. D. (1967). PEST: Efficiency estimates on probability functions. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 41, 782–787.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teunisse, J. P., & de Gelder, B. (2003). Face processing in adolescents with autistic disorder: The inversion and composite effects. Brain and Cognition, 52(3), 285–294.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Valentine, T. (1988). Upside-down faces: A review of the effect of inversion upon face recognition. British Journal of Psychology, 79(Pt 4), 471–491.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • van der Geest, J. N., Kemner, C., Verbaten, M. N., & van Engeland, H. (2002). Gaze behavior of children with pervasive developmental disorder toward human faces: A fixation time study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Allied Disciplines, 43(5), 669–678.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vlamings, P. H., Jonkman, L. M., van Daalen, E., van der Gaag, R. J., & Kemner, C. (2010). Basic abnormalities in visual processing affect face processing at an early age in autism spectrum disorder. Biological Psychiatry, 68(12), 1107–1113. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.06.024.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wechsler, D. (1939). The measurement of adult intelligence. Baltimore, MD: Williams & Witkins.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Weigelt, S., Koldewyn, K., & Kanwisher, N. (2012). Face identity recognition in autism spectrum disorders: A review of behavioral studies. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 36(3), 1060–1084. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.12.008.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wichmann, F. A., & Hill, N. J. (2001). The psychometric function: I. Fitting, sampling and goodness-of-fit. Perception & Psychophysics, 63(8), 1293–1313.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, C. E., Brock, J., & Palermo, R. (2010a). Attention to social stimuli and facial identity recognition skills in autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 54(12), 1104–1115. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.2010.01340.x.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, C. E., Palermo, R., Brock, J., & Burton, A. M. (2010b). Learning new faces in typically developing children and children on the autistic spectrum. Perception, 39(12), 1645–1658.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, H. R., Pascalis, O., & Blades, M. (2007). Familiar face recognition in children with autism; the differential use of inner and outer face parts. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37(2), 314–320.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, J. M., Tanaka, J. W., Klaiman, C., Cockburn, J., Herlihy, L., Brown, C., et al. (2008). Specific impairment of face-processing abilities in children with autism spectrum disorder using the Let’s Face It! skills battery. Autism Research: Official Journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 1(6), 329–340. doi:10.1002/aur.56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yamashita, J. A., Hardy, J. L., De Valois, K. K., & Webster, M. A. (2005). Stimulus selectivity of figural aftereffects for faces. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 31, 420–437.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Young, A. W., Hellawell, D., & Hay, D. C. (1987). Configurational information in face perception. Perception, 16(6), 747–759.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao, L., & Chubb, C. (2001). The size-tuning of the face-distortion after-effect. Vision Research, 41, 2979–2994.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Zwaigenbaum, L., Bryson, S., Rogers, T., Roberts, W., Brian, J., & Szatmari, P. (2005). Behavioral manifestations of autism in the first year of life. International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience, 23(2–3), 143–152. doi:10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2004.05.001.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by NIH/NICHD R01 HD052804-01A2 awarded to Karen Dobkins.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Pamela M. Pallett

    Present address: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, 0109, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA

    Pamela M. Pallett, Shereen J. Cohen & Karen R. Dobkins

Authors
  1. Pamela M. Pallett
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Shereen J. Cohen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Karen R. Dobkins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Karen R. Dobkins.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Pallett, P.M., Cohen, S.J. & Dobkins, K.R. Face and Object Discrimination in Autism, and Relationship to IQ and Age. J Autism Dev Disord 44, 1039–1054 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-1955-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-1955-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation