No abstract

This is the fifth experimental issue of the Schizophrenia Bulletin (previous issues were dated December 1969, Fall 1970, Winter 1970, and Fall 1971. The Bulletin is prepared jointly by the Center for Studies of Schizophrenia and the Office of Communications, both in the National Institute of Mental Health. Its purpose is to facilitate the dissemination and exchange of information about schizophrenia and to provide abstracts of the recent literature on the subject. Material contained in the Bulletin does not necessarily reflect the opinions, official policy, or position of the National Institute of Mental Health.

Sun~mary.-Marching-to-sample tasks were used to test the ability of six autistic children to make visual, vocal, and fine motor responses in response to visual and auditory stimuli. The results indicated that: the testing method was appropriare for low-functioning children; the group was heterogeneous with respect to perceptual deficits; and fine motor performance was poor. The data suggest that a basic difficulty in infantile autism may not be an avoidance of auditory and visual stimuli per se but rather a deficit in ability to make crossmodal associations. It is further suggested that the testing method would be useful for constructing profiles of perceptual disabilities with many types of lowfunctioning children.