Autism
Which part of face recognition is harder for autistic adults?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Autistic adults were worse at perceiving faces accurately and at remembering them, but once perception was taken into account they were just as good as others at deciding whether two faces were the same person.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Case-control — Study 1: correlational individual-differences study using regression of face-memory scores on separate perception and matching measures; Study 2: autistic vs matched neurotypical adults on the same tests, with group entered into the regressions
- N
- Study 1 analysed 1,112 neurotypical adults online; Study 2 compared 57 autistic adults with 57 neurotypical adults matched on age, gender and non-verbal IQ
- Population
- Adults recruited online (Study 1); clinically diagnosed autistic adults from a research volunteer database and matched Prolific participants (Study 2)
- Outcome
- Face perception (deviation of similarity ratings from face-recognition algorithms on the Oxford Face Matching Test), face matching accuracy (OFMT, Glasgow Face Matching Test) and face memory (Cambridge Face Memory Test)
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Key findings
In Study 1, better face perception predicted better face matching, and perception and matching each independently predicted face memory; together they explained 27.3% of the variance in memory scores. In Study 2, the autistic group scored lower on all three tests. However, after controlling for face perception, the autistic group did not differ in face matching, while their face memory was still worse even after controlling for both perception and matching. The authors conclude autism involves impaired face perception and memory but intact face matching, unlike developmental prosopagnosia where all three are impaired.
Methodology
In the Oxford Face Matching Test, people rate how similar two faces look and then decide whether they show the same person; comparing their similarity ratings with scores from face-recognition algorithms gives a measure of face perception, and their same/different decisions give a measure of face matching. Study 1 gave this test, another matching test and the Cambridge Face Memory Test to over a thousand adults online. Study 2 gave the same tests to 57 autistic adults and 57 neurotypical adults matched on age, gender and non-verbal IQ, and used regression to see which abilities differed after the others were held constant.
Limitations
Study 2 was small relative to Study 1, and the authors' own power analysis showed only about 50% power for modest effects, so the null result for face matching could partly reflect limited power. The approach assumes that matching-test performance is made up only of perception and matching, while other abilities such as working memory or attention probably contribute too. Autistic participants varied widely, with a sizeable minority performing better than the typical neurotypical participant, so the group averages do not describe every autistic person. Neither study was preregistered, and the design is correlational, so it identifies which sub-process differs rather than why.
How this study connects
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