Autistic Traits in the Neurotypical Population do not Predict Increased Response Conservativeness in Perceptual Decision Making. (October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pirrone, Angelo; Wen, Wen; Li, Sheng; Baker, Daniel H.; Milne, Elizabeth
• Is Part Of: Perception. Volume 47:Number 10/11(2018)
• Page Start: 1081
• Page End: 1096
• Publication Date: 2018-10
• Subjects: autism -- decision making -- response conservativeness -- AQ; Perception -- Periodicals; Perception -- Periodicals; Perception; Periodicals; 153.705
• DOI: 10.1177/0301006618802689
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0301-0066

Abstract

Recent research has shown that adults and children with autism spectrum disorders have a more conservative decision criterion in perceptual decision making compared to neurotypical individuals, meaning that autistic participants prioritise accuracy over speed of a decision. Here, we test whether autistic traits in the neurotypical population correlate with increased response conservativeness. We employed three different tasks; for two tasks we recruited participants from China ( N = 39) and for one task from the United Kingdom ( N = 37). Our results show that autistic traits in the neurotypical population do not predict variation in response criterion. We also failed to replicate previous work showing a relationship between autistic traits and sensitivity to coherent motion and static orientation. Following the argument proposed by Gregory and Plaisted-Grant, we discuss why perceptual differences between autistic and neurotypical participants do not necessarily predict perceptual differences between neurotypical participants with high and low autistic traits.