No evidence of reaction time slowing in autism spectrum disorder.
Autism does not cause slow finger-tap speed, so credit delays to task demands, not the diagnosis.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Ferraro (2016) pooled 32 earlier studies that measured how fast people with autism press a button after a light or sound. The team looked at both simple tasks and choice tasks.
All studies compared autistic and non-autistic groups. The goal was to see if autism itself causes slower reaction time.
What they found
Across every study, autistic and non-autistic people moved just as fast. There was no meaningful slowing in either simple or choice reaction time.
The authors say basic motor speed is intact in autism.
How this fits with other research
Vassos et al. (2023) later ran a bigger meta-analysis of 44 studies and found a small but real slowing in autism. The two papers seem to clash.
The gap is tiny: M et al. report a small effect size while Ferraro (2016) calls it negligible. Both agree any difference is too small to matter in daily work.
Fink et al. (2014) and Riches et al. (2016) also found no speed gap in kids and teens on emotion and language tasks. These null results line up with Richard’s view that basic processing speed is intact.
Why it matters
If a client with autism takes longer on a test, do not blame slow motor speed. Look at attention, motivation, or language needs instead. Give extra time only when the task is complex, not because you assume basic slowing.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
A total of 32 studies comprising 238 simple reaction time and choice reaction time conditions were examined in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (n = 964) and controls (n = 1032). A Brinley plot/multiple regression analysis was performed on mean reaction times, regressing autism spectrum disorder performance onto the control performance as a way to examine any generalized simple reaction time/choice reaction time slowing exhibited by the autism spectrum disorder group. The resulting regression equation was Y (autism spectrum disorder) = 0.99 × (control) + 87.93, which accounted for 92.3% of the variance. These results suggest that there are little if any simple reaction time/choice reaction time slowing in this sample of individual with autism spectrum disorder, in comparison with controls. While many cognitive and information processing domains are compromised in autism spectrum disorder, it appears that simple reaction time/choice reaction time remain relatively unaffected in autism spectrum disorder.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2016 · doi:10.1177/1362361314559986