Brief Report: Information Processing Speed is Intact in Autism but not Correlated with Measured Intelligence

Wallace, Gregory L.; Anderson, Mike; Happé, Francesca

doi:10.1007/s10803-008-0684-1

Cited by 44 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Indeed, only when their general intelligence was underestimated using Wechsler IQ did the autistic subgroup show a significant IT advantage. Our results confirm previous autism spectrum IT findings (e.g., Scheuffgen et al, 2000;Wallace, Anderson, et al, 2009) but allow for a more nuanced interpretation. Groups consisting primarily of autistics should perform better on IT than their Wechsler FSIQ scores predict.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

The level and nature of autistic intelligence III: Inspection time.

Barbeau

Soulières

Dawson

et al. 2013

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

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Across the autism spectrum, level of intelligence is highly dependent on the psychometric instrument used for assessment, and there are conflicting views concerning which measures best estimate autistic cognitive abilities. Inspection time is a processing speed measure associated with general intelligence in typical individuals. We therefore investigated autism spectrum performance on inspection time in relation to two different general intelligence tests. Autism spectrum individuals were divided into autistic and Asperger subgroups according to speech development history. Compared to a typical control group, mean inspection time for the autistic subgroup but not the Asperger subgroup was significantly shorter (by 31%). However, the shorter mean autistic inspection time was evident only when groups were matched on Wechsler IQ and disappeared when they were matched using Raven's Progressive Matrices. When autism spectrum abilities are compared to typical abilities, results may be influenced by speech development history as well as by the instrument used for intelligence matching.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

The level and nature of autistic intelligence III: Inspection time.

Barbeau

Soulières

Dawson

et al. 2013

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

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“…The ASD group’s processing speed was comparable to that of a group of typically developing control (TDC) children with IQ scores 25 points higher, on average. The two most recent studies using the IT task extend these results finding comparable processing speed between: 1) a group of relatively high-functioning children with ASD and age and IQ matched TDC children (Wallace, Anderson, & Happé, 2009) and 2) an adult savant with ASD and a control group of neurotypical adults matched on age and verbal ability (Wallace, Happé, & Giedd, 2009). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 66%

Motor demands impact speed of information processing in autism spectrum disorders.

Kenworthy

Yerys²,

Weinblatt³

et al. 2013

Neuropsychology

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Objective The apparent contradiction between preserved or even enhanced perceptual processing speed on inspection time tasks in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and impaired performance on complex processing speed tasks that require motor output (e.g. Wechsler Processing Speed Index) has not yet been systematically investigated. This study investigates whether adding motor output demands to an inspection time task impairs ASD performance compared to that of typically developing control (TDC) children. Method The performance of children with ASD (n=28; mean FSIQ=115) and TDC (n=25; mean FSIQ=122) children was compared on processing speed tasks with increasing motor demand. Correlations were run between ASD task performance and Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) Communication scores. Results Performance by the ASD and TDC groups on a simple perceptual processing speed task with minimal motor demand was equivalent, though it diverged (ASD worse than TDC) on two tasks with the same stimuli, but increased motor output demands. ASD performance on the moderate but not the high speeded motor output demand task was negatively correlated with ADOS communication symptoms. Conclusions These data address the apparent contradiction between preserved inspection time in the context of slowed “processing speed” in ASD. They show that processing speed is preserved when motor demands are minimized, but that increased motor output demands interfere with the ability to act on perceptual processing of simple stimuli. Reducing motor demands (e.g. through the use of computers) may increase the capacity of people with ASD to demonstrate good perceptual processing in a variety of educational, vocational and social settings.

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“…In fact, when compared to typically developing children, children with autism have commonly been found to perform poorly on measures of processing speed (Calhoun and Mayes 2005;Mayes and Calhoun 2003, 2004. While some studies have reported a processing speed advantage for individuals with autism relative to that expected from their levels of IQ, these findings are more consistent with intact speed of processing (i.e., speed of processing equivalent to controls), rather than a speed of processing advantage (Scheuffgen et al 2000;Wallace et al 2009). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are the Autism and Positive Schizotypy Spectra Diametrically Opposed in Local Versus Global Processing?

Russell-Smith

Maybery

Bayliss

2010

J Autism Dev Disord

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Crespi and Badcock (2008) proposed that autism and psychosis represent two extremes on a cognitive spectrum with normality at its center. Their specific claim that autistic and positive schizophrenia traits contrastingly affect preference for local versus global processing was investigated by examining Embedded Figures Test performance in two groups of students separated on autisticlike traits but matched on positive schizotypy traits, and two groups separated on positive schizotypy traits but matched on autistic-like traits (n = 20 per group). Consistent with their theory, higher levels of autistic-like traits were associated with faster identification of hidden figures, whereas higher levels of positive schizotypy traits were associated with slower identification.

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Brief Report: Information Processing Speed is Intact in Autism but not Correlated with Measured Intelligence

Cited by 44 publications

References 22 publications

The level and nature of autistic intelligence III: Inspection time.

The level and nature of autistic intelligence III: Inspection time.

Motor demands impact speed of information processing in autism spectrum disorders.

Are the Autism and Positive Schizotypy Spectra Diametrically Opposed in Local Versus Global Processing?

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