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Implicit and explicit understanding of ambiguous figures by adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>07/2011
<mark>Journal</mark>Autism
Issue number4
Volume15
Number of pages16
Pages (from-to)457-472
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can process
both interpretations of an ambiguous figure (e.g. rabbit/duck) when
told about the ambiguity, however they tend not to do so spontaneously.
Here we show that although adolescents with ASD can explicitly
experience such ‘reversals’, implicit measures suggest they are conceptually processing the images differently from learning disabled peers.
Participants copied the same ambiguous figures under different contextual conditions, both before and after reversal experience. Results suggest that adolescents with ASD are not influenced by contextual information when copying ambiguous drawings, since they produce similar pictures before and after reversal, compared with controls.
This research has implications for how individuals with ASD understand multiple representations and supports the Enhanced Perceptual Functioning theory.