Superior disembedding performance of high-functioning individuals with autism spectrum disorders and their parents: the need for subtle measures.
Counting wrong attempts on the Embedded Figures Test can reveal subtle visual-disembedding strengths in high-functioning clients with autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team gave the Embedded Figures Test to high-functioning teens and adults with autism and to their parents. They timed how fast each person found the hidden shape and counted every wrong guess.
The test looks simple: spot a small triangle inside a busy picture. Yet it shows how well someone can pull one detail out of a crowded scene.
What they found
People with autism finished faster and made fewer wrong picks than the control group. Their fathers also made fewer errors, hinting at a family link.
Counting the wrong tries, not just speed, revealed the strength most clearly.
How this fits with other research
Muth et al. (2014) pooled many studies and found the same small edge for autism on disembedding tasks, so the 2006 result sits inside a wider pattern.
Ferreri et al. (2011) looked only at school-age kids and saw no speed or accuracy gap. The clash fades when you note age: the advantage may bloom after childhood.
Alonso Soriano et al. (2015) used an automated version with teens and also saw no boost, showing that hand-timed tests catch subtler skills than computer clicks.
Why it matters
Next time you assess a teen or adult with autism, add the Embedded Figures Test and tally both time and errors. A low error count can flag hidden visual strengths you can harness in vocational tasks like proof-reading, data checking, or quality control. Share the finding with parents too—it may validate their own detail-focused traits and guide career planning for the whole family.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Give the Embedded Figures Test once, count errors, and note if the client beats age norms—then fold that strength into job or leisure goals.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
We assessed the disembedding performance on the Embedded Figures Test (EFT) of high-functioning subjects with autism or autism spectrum disorders from multi-incidence families and the performance of their parents. The individuals with autism spectrum disorders were significantly faster than matched controls in locating the shape, but their parents were not faster than a control group of parents. However, both the individuals with autism spectrum disorders and their fathers made significantly fewer incorrect attempts before finding the right shape than matched controls. These results suggest that the number of incorrect attempts is a more subtle measure than accuracy or response time for assessing superior disembedding skills and therefore may be useful in the assessment of individuals with autism spectrum disorders.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2006 · doi:10.1007/s10803-006-0113-2