Ensemble perception of color in autistic adults.
John Maule, Kirstie Stanworth, Elizabeth Pellicano and 1 others
PMID 27874263WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic adults were better than typical adults at spotting which individual colors had appeared in a brief set.
They judged average color similarly overall, but were less accurate for four-color sets.
Key findings
01Autistic adults were more sensitive than typical adults to whether a color had been part of the ensemble (mean sensitivity score 0.23 versus 0.02).
02Both groups judged the average color more accurately than chance, and overall averaging accuracy did not differ between groups (autistic mean accuracy 0.57; typical mean accuracy 0.58).
03When set size was scored by distance from the true color mean, autistic adults were less accurate than typical adults for four-element sets (P = .031), but not for eight or sixteen elements.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The analysed groups were small: 16 autistic adults and 16 typical adults. The sample was homogeneous: participants were adults with at least average intellectual functioning, recruited through autism charities or community contacts. The gender ratio was unusual, with six male participants in each analysed group. The study measured brief color patches on a screen, not everyday sensory overload, communication, mobility, or therapy outcomes. Three participants with ASD were excluded for not meeting questionnaire cut-offs, and typical participants were excluded for a testing fault, incomplete IQ, and to match the ASD group. The authors note that the color-distance analysis relies on assumptions about perceptual color space.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that autistic adults have a general deficit in global perception. The averaging difference appeared only for four-element sets, and overall accuracy was similar between groups.