Atypical categorization in children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder.

ABSTRACT: Children with autism spectrum disorder process many perceptual and social events differently from typically developing children, suggesting that they may also form and recognize categories differently. We used a dot pattern categorization task and prototype comparison modeling to compare categorical processing in children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder and matched typical controls. We were interested in whether there were differences in how children with autism use average similarity information about a category to make decisions. During testing, the group with autism spectrum disorder endorsed prototypes less and was seemingly less sensitive to differences between to-be-categorized items and the prototype. The findings suggest that individuals with high-functioning autism

SUBMITTER: Church BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3058590 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature