Abstract
Thirteen autistic children were compared to 13 normal children, matched to them in mental age, on performance of a visual discrimination task. Form, color, and size were relevant and redundant cues. The groups did not differ significantly in mean trials to reach criterion or in breadth of learning, and both groups increased their breadth of learning after 50 trials of overtraining. Form was preferred to color and size by both autistic and normal children. Within each group, rank on mental age was highly correlated with rank in breadth of learning. Verbal and nonverbal autistic children did not differ in breadth of learning or in dimensional preference. Even nonverbal autistics equaled the performance of their normal controls. Our results suggest that overselective attention is better understood as part of a general developmental lag in cognition in autistic children than as a specific deficit underlying psychotic behavior.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 289-298 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology |
Volume | 4 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 1976 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Developmental and Educational Psychology
- Psychiatry and Mental health