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. 2018 Jul;48(7):2478-2489.
doi: 10.1007/s10803-018-3508-y.

Superior Disembedding in Children with ASD: New Tests Using Abstract, Meaningful, and 3D Contexts

Ruth Van der Hallen  1   2   3 , Rebecca Chamberlain  4   5 , Lee de-Wit  4   6 , Johan Wagemans  4   7
Affiliations

Superior Disembedding in Children with ASD: New Tests Using Abstract, Meaningful, and 3D Contexts

Ruth Van der Hallen et al. J Autism Dev Disord. 2018 Jul.

Abstract

Since its initial development, the embedded figures test (EFT) has been used extensively to measure local-global perceptual style. However, little is known about the perceptual factors that influence target detection. The current study aimed to investigate disembedding in children with and without ASD, aged 8-15 years, using the newly developed, stimulus-controlled L-EFT, M-EFT and D-EFT. Firstly, results revealed superior disembedding for children with ASD, irrespective of the type of target or embedding context, although the ASD group took more time in both the M-EFT and D-EFT. Secondly, the number of target lines continuing into the context proved more of a hindrance for the controls. Taken together, these findings provide strong evidence to support the notion of superior disembedding in ASD.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD); Disembedding; EFT; L-EFT; Perceptual organization.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Example trial of M-EFT with meaningful and non-meaningful contexts (only one of both contexts shown in each actual trial). The correct answer is the context presented on the left (randomized in the actual trials)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Example trial of D-EFT with 3D and 2D contexts (only one of both contexts shown in each actual trial). The correct answer is the context presented on the left (randomized in the actual trials)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Mean accuracy by number of continued lines for both the ASD and TD participant group. Error bars represent standard error of the mean (SEM)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Mean accuracy for the non-meaningful (NM) and meaningful (M) condition of the M-EFT and two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) condition of the D-EFT task for the ASD and TD group. Error bars represent standard error of the mean (SEM)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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