This study examined the effect of exemplar typicality on reaction time and accuracy of categorization. High-functioning children (age 9-12), adolescents (age 13-16), and adults with autism (age 17-48) and matched controls were tested in a category verification procedure. All groups showed improved processing throughout the lifespan for typical and somewhat typical category exemplars. However, individuals with autism responded more slowly than matched controls to atypical exemplars at all ages. The results are discussed in terms of potential differences in the type of processing that may be required for categorizing typical and atypical category exemplars. Parallels are also drawn to the results of previous studies on face processing in individuals with autism.

While it is well-known that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties processing faces, very little is known about the origins of these deficits. The current study focused on 6- and 11-month-old infants who were at either high-risk (n = 43) or low-risk (n = 31) for developing ASD based on having a sibling already diagnosed with the disorder. Eye-tracking data were collected while the infants viewed color photographs of faces. Similar to previous studies with both typically developing adults and infants, low-risk infants demonstrated a preference for looking at the left side of the face (known as a left visual field bias) that emerged by 11 months of age. In contrast, high-risk infants did not demonstrate a left visual field bias at either age. Comparisons of the amount of attention given to the eye versus mouth regions indicated no differences between the two risk groups.

There is a growing amount of evidence suggesting that individuals with autism have difficulty with categorization. One basic cognitive ability that may underlie this difficulty is the ability to abstract a prototype. The current study examined prototype and category formation with dot patterns in high-functioning adults with autism and matched controls. Individuals with autism were found to have difficulty forming prototypes and categories of dot patterns. The eye-tracking data did not reveal any between group differences in attention to the dot patterns. However, relationships between performance and intelligence in the autism group suggest possible processing differences between the groups. Results are consistent with previous studies that have found deficits in prototype formation and extend these deficits to dot patterns.

Prototype formation is a critical skill for category learning. Research suggests that individuals with autism may have a deficit in prototype formation of some objects; however, results are mixed. The current study used a natural category, faces, to further examine prototype formation in high-functioning individuals with autism. High-functioning children (age 8–13 years) and adults with autism (age 17–53 years) and matched controls were tested in a facial prototype formation task that has been used to test prototype formation abilities in typically developing infants and adults (Strauss, 1979). Participants were familiarized to a series of faces depicting subtle variations in the spatial distance of facial features, and were then given a forced choice familiarity test between the mean prototype and the mode prototype. Overall, individuals in the autism group were significantly less likely to select the mean prototype face. Even though the children with autism showed this difference in prototype formation, this pattern was driven primarily by the adults, because the adults with autism were approximately 4 times less likely to select the mean prototype than were the control adults. These results provide further evidence that individuals with autism have difficulty abstracting subtle spatial information that is necessary not only for the formation of a mean prototype, but also for categorizing faces and objects.

DSM-5 criteria for ASD have been criticized for being too restrictive, especially for more cognitively-able individuals. It is unclear, however, if high-functioning individuals deemed eligible for research via standardized diagnostic assessments would meet DSM-5 criteria. This study investigated the impact of DSM-5 on the diagnostic status of 498 high-functioning participants with ASD research diagnoses. The percent of participants satisfying all DSM-5-requirements varied significantly with reliance on data from the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS; 33%) versus Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R; 83%), highlighting the impact of diagnostic methodology on ability to document DSM-5 symptoms. Utilizing combined ADOS/ADI-R data, 93% of participants met DSM-5 criteria, which suggests likely continuity between DSM-IV and DSM-5 research samples characterized with these instruments in combination.

There is a growing amount of evidence suggesting that individuals with autism have difficulty with face processing. One basic cognitive ability that may underlie face processing difficulties is the ability to abstract a prototype. The current study examined prototype formation with natural faces using eye-tracking in high-functioning adults with autism and matched controls. Individuals with autism were found to have significant difficulty forming prototypes of natural faces. The eyetracking data did not reveal any between group differences in the general pattern of attention to the faces, indicating that these difficulties were not due to attentional factors. Results are consistent with previous studies that have found a deficit in prototype formation and extend these deficits to natural faces. Keywordsprototype; autism; face perception; cognition It is well-known that individuals with autism have difficulties perceiving and recognizing faces, including deficits in the categorization of facial gender (e.g., Behrmann et al., 2006;Best, Minshew, & Strauss, 2010), discrimination of facial expressions, (e.g., Celani, Battacchi, & Arcidiacono, 1999;Rump, Giovannelli, Minshew, & Strauss, 2009), and face recognition (e.g., Klin, Sparrow, de Bildt, Cicchetti, Cohen, & Volkmar, 1999;Lahaie, Mottron, Arguin, Berthiaume, Jemel, & Saumier, 2006;Newell, Best, Gastgeb, Rump, & Strauss, 2010). Traditional explanations for these deficits have suggested that individuals with autism focus more on discrete facial features rather than processing configural information and perceiving faces in a holistic manner (for review see Dawson, Webb, & McPartland, 2005). In particular, it has been found that individuals with autism are less affected by the face inversion effect than typically developing individuals (e.g., Boucher & Lewis, 1992;Klin et al., 1999). Since the viewing of inverted faces disrupts configural and holistic processes, it has been argued that individuals with autism rely more on featural processing.Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to Mark S. Strauss, Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, 210 South Bouquet Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Electronic mail may be sent to strauss@pitt.edu. Holly Zajac Gastgeb is now at Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Researchers have traditionally used bottom-up, perceptual explanations to account for face processing difficulties, arguing that individuals with autism are biased toward processing local features and are less likely to perceive global patterns (Frith & Happé, 1994;Mottron et al., 2006). These explanations suggest that the difficulties that arise in face processing are caused by underlying differences in how the perceptual aspects of faces are processed. Although differences in these bottom-up processes may exist, it is also clear that the development of expertise in face processing requires extensive learning that does not reach full maturity until adolescence or adulthood in typically developing...

There is a growing amount of evidence suggesting that individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) differ in the way in which they cognitively process information. A critical aspect of cognitive processing that is receiving more attention in studies of ASD is categorization. The studies presented here examined the effect of typicality on categorization of objects and gender in high-functioning children, adolescents, and adults with ASD and matched controls. The ASD and control groups showed improved categorization throughout the lifespan for typical and somewhat typical object category members and typical gender faces. However, individuals with ASD took more time to categorize atypical object category members and were less accurate in categorizing atypical gender faces from 8–12 years through adulthood. The implications of these results for teaching categories and category labels to individuals with ASD will be discussed.

Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder with onset before the age of three years. Recent studies suggest that its prevalence in the United States is as high as 1 out of every 150 children (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2007), and there is concern that the incidence of autism is rising worldwide (Chakrabarti & Fombonne, 2005). There has been a tremendous amount of research on autism, especially in recent years. However, the theories which attempt to explain autism have failed to address how autism might develop before the diagnosis occurs (i.e., the development of autism during infancy). In addition, there is little theoretical explanation of the development of the diagnostic symptoms of autism. Despite the lack of scientific insight into the early development of autism, there is a growing body of evidence that symptoms of autism are present before the first birthday. The intervention literature has suggested that early intervention is most effective at altering the course of the disorder. Thus, there is a pressing need to diagnosis autism before age two. Research findings from our lab indicate a number of cognitive deficits in individuals with autism that are developing during infancy for typically developing individuals (e.g., gender categorization of faces). We, along with several other labs across the country, are beginning to investigate