Prior information use and response caution in perceptual decision-making: No evidence for a relationship with autistic-like traits

Abstract

Interpreting the world around us requires integrating incoming sensory signals with prior information. Autistic individuals have been proposed to rely less on prior information and make more cautious responses than non-autistic individuals. Here we investigated whether these purported features of autistic perception vary as a function of autistic-like traits in the general population. We used a diffusion model framework, whereby decisions are modelled as noisy evidence accumulation processes towards one of two bounds. Within this framework, prior information can bias the starting point of the evidence accumulation process. Our pre-registered hypotheses were that higher autistic-like traits would relate to reduced starting point bias caused by prior information and increased response caution (wider boundary separation). 222 participants discriminated the direction of coherent motion stimuli as quickly and accurately as possible. Stimuli were preceded with a neutral cue (square) or a directional cue (arrow). 80% of the directional cues validly predicted the upcoming motion direction. We modelled accuracy and response time data using a hierarchical Bayesian model in which starting point varied with cue condition. We found no evidence for our hypotheses, with starting point bias and response caution seemingly unrelated to AQ scores. Alongside future research applying this paradigm to autistic individuals, our findings will help refine theories regarding the role of prior information and altered decision-making strategies in autistic perception. Our study also has implications for models of bias in perceptual decision-making, as the most plausible model was one that incorporated bias in both decision-making and sensory processing.

Decision making in Autism: a narrative review

“…Ten of the 21 studies (47.6%) reported no statistical difference in perceptual discrimination (i.e. on performance metrics, or neural activity) between autistic and comparison participants (Greimel et al, 2013;Peiker et al, 2015;Pirrone et al, 2017;Plaisted et al, 1998;Sapey-Triomphe et al, 2021a;Shepphard & Altgassen, 2021;Manning et al, 2021). Ewbank et al (2016) reported that neural response was unrelated to autistic traits on a repetition suppression task; Powell et al (2016) found that autistic traits did not uniquely explain sensory thresholds.…”