Support for a link between the local processing bias and social deficits in autism: an investigation of embedded figures test performance in non-clinical individuals.
In college students, better hidden-figure detection linked only to social-trait extremes, suggesting local visual bias may specifically accompany social challenges.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Bowen et al. (2012) asked college students to find hidden shapes inside bigger pictures. The task is called the Embedded Figures Test. Students also filled out a survey about autism-like traits.
The team wanted to know if sharp eye for detail links to social trouble, not just any autistic feature.
What they found
Students who spotted hidden shapes fastest scored highest on social-difficulty questions. Better detail skill did not track with other traits like love of routines.
The result hints that the visual local bias seen in autism may be tied mainly to social challenges.
How this fits with other research
Moss et al. (2009) saw the same link in adults with high autistic traits, giving an earlier snapshot. Dolezal et al. (2010) and Sabatino DiCriscio et al. (2017) later repeated the finding, strengthening the pattern.
Alonso Soriano et al. (2015) and Ferreri et al. (2011) look like contradictions. They tested diagnosed youth and found no EFT advantage. Age and clinical status likely explain the gap. The trait link shows up in non-clinical adults, not in every child with autism.
Zappullo et al. (2023) extend the idea. They show local skill acts as a stepping-stone between detail focus and mental rotation, adding a new layer to the story.
Why it matters
If you assess social skills, remember that strong visual detail detection may flag social difficulty even in neurotypical clients. You can use quick hidden-figure tasks during intake to spot this cognitive style. Pair it with social-skills screening to see if the link holds for that person.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The aim of this investigation was to explore the degree to which specific subsets of autistic-like traits relate to performance on the Embedded Figures Test (Witkin et al. in A manual for the embedded figures test. Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, CA, 1971). In the first group-based investigation with this focus, students were selected for their extreme scores (either high or low) on each of the 'Social Skills' and 'Details/Patterns' factors of the Autism Spectrum Quotient (Baron-Cohen et al. in J Austim Dev Disord 31:5-17, 2001). The resulting 2 × 2 factorial design permitted examination of the degree to which the social and non-social autistic-like traits separately relate to EFT performance. Surprisingly, in two studies, superior EFT performance was found to relate only to greater social difficulty, suggesting that the local processing bias in autism may be linked specifically to the social deficits.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2012 · doi:10.1007/s10803-012-1506-z