Face recognition performance of individuals with Asperger syndrome on the Cambridge Face Memory Test.
Face-memory ability in Asperger syndrome spans a wide continuum—screen individually because roughly half perform within typical limits.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Hedley et al. (2011) gave the Cambridge Face Memory Test to adults with Asperger syndrome.
They wanted to see if these adults could remember and match unfamiliar faces as well as adults without autism.
The test uses neutral faces, so emotion reading was not part of the job.
What they found
The Asperger group scored lower on average than the control group.
Some people with Asperger’s had severe trouble, while others scored above average.
Performance formed a smooth line from low to high, not two separate camps.
How this fits with other research
van Timmeren et al. (2016) also found poorer face skills in autistic adults, but only when the faces showed strong emotions.
Darren’s neutral-face result lines up with that study: both show face-processing gaps, yet the gap size depends on whether emotion is involved.
Fullana et al. (2007) looked at kids with Asperger’s on emotion tasks and saw typical scores, while kids with high-functioning autism scored low.
Taken together, the papers hint that people with Asperger’s may do fine on emotion tasks but still struggle to store and recall neutral faces, so both skills need separate checks.
Why it matters
Because face-memory skill in Asperger’s spans a wide range, you cannot assume competence from the label alone.
Screen each client with a quick face-memory task before teaching social skills that rely on recognizing new people.
If scores are low, add extra practice with photo arrays or video review so faces become familiar faster.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Although face recognition deficits in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), including Asperger syndrome (AS), are widely acknowledged, the empirical evidence is mixed. This in part reflects the failure to use standardized and psychometrically sound tests. We contrasted standardized face recognition scores on the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT) for 34 individuals with AS with those for 42, IQ-matched non-ASD individuals, and age-standardized scores from a large Australian cohort. We also examined the influence of IQ, autistic traits, and negative affect on face recognition performance. Overall, participants with AS performed significantly worse on the CFMT than the non-ASD participants and when evaluated against standardized test norms. However, while 24% of participants with AS presented with severe face recognition impairment (>2 SDs below the mean), many individuals performed at or above the typical level for their age: 53% scored within +/- 1 SD of the mean and 9% demonstrated superior performance (>1 SD above the mean). Regression analysis provided no evidence that IQ, autistic traits, or negative affect significantly influenced face recognition: diagnostic group membership was the only significant predictor of face recognition performance. In sum, face recognition performance in ASD is on a continuum, but with average levels significantly below non-ASD levels of performance.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2011 · doi:10.1002/aur.214