City Research Online City, University of London Institutional Repository Citation: Daniel, Niki (2011). Face Processing Strategies in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. (Unpublished Doctoral thesis, City University London) This is the unspecified version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/1111/ Link to published version: Copyright: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to. Reuse: Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. Provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ [email protected] Face Processing Strategies in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Niki Daniel Thesis submitted to City University London for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Psychology, City University London, UK January 2011 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………. 2 List of Tables…………………………………………………………………........ 7 List of Figures…………………………………………………………………….. 9 Acknowledgments……………………………………………………………........ 13 Declaration…………………………………………………………………………14 Abstract………………………………………………………………………......... 15 CHAPTER 1: AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS: AN OVERVIEW........... 16 1.1. A history and definition of Autism Spectrum Disorders……………… 17 1.2. Autism Spectrum Disorders: Possible Causes……………………........ 20 1.3. Theories of ASD………………………………………………………. 22 1.3.1. Difficulties with Theory of Mind…………………………... 24 1.3.2. Executive Dysfunction……………………………………... 26 1.3.3. Perception - Central Coherence Theory………………......... 28 1.4. Face Processing…………………………………………………........... 31 CHAPTER 2: FACE PROCESSING IN TYPICALLY DEVELOPING CHILDREN AND CHILDREN WITH ASD…………………………………… 32 2.1. Introduction………………………………………………………......... 33 2.2. Visual-perceptual Development………………………………………. 33 2.3. Faces as visual stimuli and the types of information in them……......... 34 2.4. Development of face processing in typically developing populations ……………………………………………………………………………... 37 2.4.1. Face Processing in infants…………………………………… 38 2.4.2. Paradigms used in face processing in childhood………......... 40 2.4.3. Featural processing in childhood………………………......... 46 2.4.4. Holistic processing in childhood………………………......... 47 2.4.5. Configural processing in childhood…………………............. 49 2.4.6. Configural vs. Holistic processing…………………………... 52 2.4.7. Face processing and brain activity…………………………... 55 2.4.8. Development of face processing: A summary and conclusions…………………………………………………………. 61 2.5. Face Processing in ASD…………………………………………..........62 2 2.5.1. Neuropsychological studies of face processing in ASD…...... 66 2.6. General aims of the thesis……………………………………………... 71 CHAPTER 3: EXPERIMENT 1: CONFIGURAL FACE PROCESSING IN ASD ……………………………………………………………………………………... 72 3.1. Introduction……………………………………………………............. 73 3.1.1. Typical development………………………………………… 73 3.1.2. Face processing in ASD ……………………………….......... 73 3.1.3. Experiment 1………………………………………………… 83 3.2. Method………………………………………………………………… 85 3.2.1. Participants…………………………………………………... 85 3.2.2. Stimuli and apparatus……………………………………….. 86 3.2.3. Procedure………………………………………………......... 88 3.3. Results…………………………………………………………………. 91 3.3.1. Overall Accuracy………………………………………......... 92 3.3.2. Inversion effect………………………………………............ 92 3.4. Discussion……………………………………………………………... 94 CHAPTER 4: EXPERIMENT 2: HOLISTIC FACE PROCESSING IN ASD ……………………………………………………………………………………... 100 4.1. Introduction……………………………………………………………. 101 4.1.2. Holistic face processing in ASD…………………………….. 103 4.1.3. The current study……………………………………………. 108 4.2. Method…………………………………………………………............ 110 4.2.1. Participants……………………………………………........... 110 4.2.2. Stimuli and apparatus…………………………………........... 111 4.2.3. Procedure……………………………………………………. 115 4.3. Results…………………………………………………………………. 118 4.3.1. Overall Accuracy ……………………………………............ 118 4.3.2. Eyes vs. mouths …………………………………….............. 119 4.3.3. Inversion effect………………………………………............ 123 4.4. Discussion……………………………………………………………... 126 CHAPTER 5: EXPERIMENTS 3 & 4: THE DISTINCTIVENESS EFFECT OF FACES IN ASD …………………………………………………………………... 131 5.1. Introduction……………………………………………………............. 132 5.1.1. Current definitions of configural and holistic face processing 3 ………………………………………………………………………132 5.1.2. Paradigms that test holistic processing and their limitations ………………………………………………………………............ 135 5.1.3. Proposal……………………………………………………... 136 5.1.3.1. The idea of overall similarity and norm based encoding in faces……………………………………………………... 138 5.1.3.2. Conclusion………………………………………… 141 5.1.4. Holistic vs. Configural processing in ASD…………..............142 5.1.4.1. Prototype formation in ASD………………. ………146 5.2. Experiment 3…………………………………………………………... 149 5.2.1. Method………………………………………………………. 149 5.2.1.1. Participants………………………………………… 149 5.2.1.2. Stimuli and Apparatus……………………………...150 5.2.1.3. Procedure………………………………………….. 152 5.2.2. Results……………………………………………….............. 154 5.2.2.1. Corrected hits ……………………………………... 155 5.2.2.2. Inversion effect……………………………………. 158 5.2.2.3. False Alarms………………………………............. 159 5.2.2.4. Inversion Effect …………………………… ……... 163 5.2.3. Discussion…………………………………………… ……... 166 5.3. Experiment 4…………………………………………………............... 168 5.3.1. Introduction………………………………………….. ……... 168 5.3.2. Method………………………………………………. ……... 170 5.3.2.1. Participants……………………………….... ……... 170 5.3.2.2. Stimuli and Apparatus……………………...……... 171 5.3.2.3. Procedure………………………………….. ……... 171 5.3.3. Results……………………………………………….. ……... 173 5.3.3.1. Corrected hits……………………………… ……... 173 5.3.3.2. Inversion Effect……………………………. ……... 174 5.3.3.3. False Alarms………………………………............. 174 5.3.3.4. Inversion Effect……………………………. ……... 178 5.3.4. Discussion…………………………………………………… 179 5.4. General Discussion……………………………………………………. 181 5.4.1. Experiment 3………………………………………… ……... 181 4 5.4.2. Distinctiveness effect………………………………... ……... 184 5.4.3. Experiment 3 vs. Experiment 4……………………… ……... 192 CHAPTER 6: EXPERIMENT 5: THE FACE INVERSION EFFECT IN ASD ……………………………………………………………………………………... 199 6.1. Introduction……………………………………………………. ……... 200 6.1.1. Face vs. Objects……………………………………………... 200 6.1.2. Information in inverted faces………………………... ……... 202 6.1.3. Developmental evidence……………………………............. 210 6.1.4. The face inversion effect in ASD……………………. ……... 213 6.1.5. Present study………………………………………… ……... 217 6.2. Method………………………………………………………… ……... 219 6.2.1. Participants…………………………………………... ……... 219 6.2.2. Stimuli and Apparatus………………………………..……... 220 6.2.3. Procedure……………………………………………………. 221 6.3. Results…………………………………………………………. ……... 227 6.3.1. Overall Analysis……………………………………...……... 228 6.3.2. Orientation Analysis ………………………………………... 230 6.3.3. Stimulus Analysis …………………………………………... 233 6.3.4. Manipulations Analysis …………………………….............. 234 6.3.5. Inversion effects …………………………………….. ……... 238 6.3.6. Orientation Analysis ………………………………………... 239 6.4. Discussion…………………………………………………………….. 241 CHAPTER 7: GENERAL DISCUSSION………………………………. …….. 249 7.1. Aim and Summary of findings………………………………… ……... 250 7.1.1. Experiment 1 ………………………………………………... 250 7.1.2. Experiment 2 ………………………………………………... 251 7.1.3. Experiments 3 and 4 …………………………………………252 7.1.4. Experiment 5 ………………………………………………... 254 7.2. Findings in relation to face processing strategies……………………... 256 7.3. Findings from this thesis vs. previous findings……………………….. 257 7.4. Implications of current findings for broader theories of ASD………… 267 7.5. The neuropsychology of Face Processing in ASD……………............. 272 7.6. The role of the hippocampus and perirhinal cortex in face processing ……………………………………………………………………………... 275 5 7.7. Methodological issues and Suggested further work…………... ……... 278 7.8. Conclusion…………………………………………………….............. 282 References…………………………………………………………………. ……... 285 Appendices………………………………………………………………… ……... 307 APPENDIX 1: Sample of information sheet and consent form…………… 307 APPENDIX 2: Participants’ overlap across experiments………….............. 310 6 List of Tables Table 3.1. Participants’ chronological age (CA) in years, verbal mental age (VMA), VIQ scores and Raven’s Progressive Matrices…………………………………….. 86 Table 4.1. Participants’ chronological age (CA) in years, verbal mental age (VMA), VIQ scores, Raven’s Progressive Matrices and Benton Facial Recognition Test scores …………………………………………………………………………………... … 111 Table 5.1. Participants’ chronological age (CA) in years, verbal mental age (VMA), IQ scores and Ravens Progressive Matrices raw scores…………………………… 150 Table 5.2. Participants’ false alarms in upright and inverted conditions…….......... 160 Table 5.3. Mean difference between upright and inverted trials (inversion effect) in false alarms for typical and distinctive faces………………………………………. 164 Table 5.4. Participants’ chronological age (CA) in years, verbal mental age (VMA), IQ scores, Ravens Progressive Matrices raw score and Benton Facial Recognition test scores………………………………………………………………………………..171 Table 5.5. Mean accuracy