Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Weak central coherence: a cross-domain phenomenon specific to autism?
AU - Hoy, J A
AU - Hatton, C
AU - Hare, D
PY - 2004/9
Y1 - 2004/9
N2 - This study investigated whether evidence for the weak central coherence theory could be specifically associated with a group of children with autism compared with normally developing children (n = 17 per group). Two tasks were employed, one involving visual illusions and the other verbal homophones. Both were based on tasks used in previous central coherence research. Incorporation of tasks involving the use of different domains (verbal versus visual) also enabled the investigation of claims that weak central coherence is a cross-domain processing style or deficit. The autistic group were found to be no different to the control group in performance on the visual illusions task. The autistic group made more errors than the normally developing group on the rare condition of the homophone task. However, analysis suggests this difference is mediated by verbal ability level and not diagnostic status per se. Theoretical implications and alternative explanations are discussed.
AB - This study investigated whether evidence for the weak central coherence theory could be specifically associated with a group of children with autism compared with normally developing children (n = 17 per group). Two tasks were employed, one involving visual illusions and the other verbal homophones. Both were based on tasks used in previous central coherence research. Incorporation of tasks involving the use of different domains (verbal versus visual) also enabled the investigation of claims that weak central coherence is a cross-domain processing style or deficit. The autistic group were found to be no different to the control group in performance on the visual illusions task. The autistic group made more errors than the normally developing group on the rare condition of the homophone task. However, analysis suggests this difference is mediated by verbal ability level and not diagnostic status per se. Theoretical implications and alternative explanations are discussed.
KW - Asperger syndrome
KW - autism
KW - central coherence theory
KW - INDIVIDUALS
KW - PERFORMANCE
KW - ILLUSIONS
U2 - 10.1177/1362361304045218
DO - 10.1177/1362361304045218
M3 - Journal article
VL - 8
SP - 267
EP - 281
JO - Autism
JF - Autism
SN - 1461-7005
IS - 3
ER -